So it appears the USB ports on my motherboard are completely destroyed, although I have no idea what happened. My mouse, scanner, color printer, laser printer, and uploads from my digital camera are rendered useless at this point, although I can run some things off the serial port if I really get desperate. I've been using a USB hub since there are only two ports on the motherboard, and I thought that the problem may be the hub. Off to Staples for another hub but it didn't work either, and when I tried other connections directly to the port with no luck, although my mouse was already connected to one of them initially when I noticed the problem, so no surprise there.

Anyway, I'm using a PS2 mouse to keep my PC going, and I purchased a USB 2.0 PCI card and followed the instructions to the letter. Siince I have XP Pro with Service Pack 2 installed, the computer guy (this is a specialty shop, not a chain store) assured me it was plug and play and the drivers were present. Anyway, I shut down, disconnected the power cord and made sure I was grounded with no static electricity present before installing the card into one of the 3 open slots. However, when I powered up my monitor screen was a scrambled mess and so I had to press the reset button to shut it down again. I removed the card, restarted and all was fine, albeit with out the USB card. I shut down again following the same process as before but using another PCI slot, but got the same result when I rebooted. I tried the third slot and got the same result, so back to the computer guy and he installed it in an open case he has for such problems and he had no problems with it. He suggested I try a different one so I did, but the same problem continues to plague me.

I'm hoping someone out there has a suggestion, beyond relacing my motherboard, that would be useful/helpful? If you do and it works, a "special reward" awaits you!

"Down on his luck" Swish