What could be wrong with my USB ports?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Ah. Found the answer. The Host controller needed to have a check mark in the
advanced tab "Don't tell me about USB errors"

"Elby" <lc45w9f02@sneakemail.com> wrote in message
news:%23HCH$BChFHA.2444@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>I have two USB ports on my Dell Inspiron m700 laptop. One is 2.0, the other
>is 1.1. The worked fine until a few weeks ago. Now whenever I plug in a
>device (Palm, Ipod, Camera, Video camera), I get the new hardware wizard,
>then USB Device not Recognized - there is a problem with the USB device...
>. After that, if I plug in the same device the hardware wizard doesn't run,
>but the device is not recognized. It shows up in Device manager as the
>default USB device, so I can't update the correct driver.
>
> Dell says it's a software problem, and they had me reinstall Windows XP
> and revert the laptop to factory settings. That didn't help.
>
> I ran the full diagnostic on the machine, and it does not recognize an
> error on the ports.
>
> My question: If this is a software problem, wouldn't reverting to factory
> settings fix it, if the problem only recently surfaced?
>
> If it's a hardware problem, why didn't it show up in the full diagnostics?
>