Laptop USB problems

[computermstr]

I baught a laptop from my friend (I get what I paid for I know) well it isn't that bad of a laptop, it is a HP Pavilion 4325EA and it has a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2000+ processor, 256MB of RAM (currently putting a 512MB stick in soon). On the bad there are 2 USB ports and neither of them seem to work, I was wondering if I should just buy a PCMICA (or whatever it is) USB card or, if there are drivers I am able to download.

I have tried update drivers on the USB in the Device Manager window, and I've tried over 5 different devices each of which work on other computers. The laptop just doesn't recognize that something is in there.

Much help would be appriciated, thank you in advanced.

[newbuilder14]

Was the operating system removed?

Do you have a system restore disk you can use?

[computermstr]

Yes, the computer was reformatted and no I do not have access to the original disk... But I went to HP.com and looked for drivers for USB slots/ports, and didn't find any

[rjfvillarosa]

USB ports on a laptop are mounted directly on to the motherboard, if you cannot wiggle the USB device about and make it connect then it looks like a motherboard problem.
Well used USB ports can become a loose fit so move the device plug about a little to try and make connection.

[glc]

Check the bios settings - they MAY be turned off in there.

[computermstr]

Okay thanks for all the help, and I don't know how much the laptop has been used since I just bought it from a friend for 50 dollars, so I get what I paid for, but I'll probably just end up purchasing a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card.