USB ports not accepting devices

[Calvin Hobbes]

Running Vista 64x

Computer I am working on had quite a few problems to begin with. After a restart fixing some problems, I get the message:

Windows is unable to recognize the USB device, it may have malfunctioned blah blah.

I know the devices work, I plugged them into the laptop next to me and they worked fine. Just a standard USB keyboard and mouse, as well as a printer.

This has been driving me nuts to the extent of reinstalling windows, and it's still happening. I tried all the standard stuff of disabling re-enabling, removing USB registry so it can refresh and have looked through countless website forums. But they don't seem to be havng the same problem as me.

No matter what device I plug in, and no matter what USB port, none of them work. The keyboard won't even work with a USB to PS/2 converter.

I finally decided to remove the cmos battery, just going to let that sit overnight, too tired to work on it anymore tonight. I will post if it fixes it but if anyone has any ideas of what may be causing this, please let me know.

It may be irrelevant but prior to me touching it, sidebar would not load, the desktop profile could not be found (none of the icons or anything user related would show) after login, and may have been possible virus/spyware issues on the machine. The desktop profile issue was a hit or miss on a restart, sometimes it would load, sometimes not. I was starting to think the USB trouble was being caused by a virus somehow but now I'm not so sure after reinstalling vista.

[glc]

Did you reinstall over the top, or did you do a full wipe?

[Calvin Hobbes]

Full wipe, but the cmos reset worked perfect and everything is working as it should from USB side of things.