USB ports no longer show in XP

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I have an Acer notebook PC with several USB ports. I've used them to
access a scanner, and my mouse is attached to one of them.

The other day I tried to attach a new printer via a USB port. XP
indicated that it recognized the device, and I used the installation CD
that came with the printer to install the driver, etc..

When I tried to print, I got an error message that the printer was not
ready. After a little digging, I discovered that somehow the printer
had been assigned to LPT1! In scolling down through the list of ports I
found that there were no USB ports listed.

I attached the printer to my desktop PC and it worked fine.

Should I re-install Windows, call Acer, or...?

John in Oakland