USB Problems

[chip]

I'm been running Win XP Pro with a P4 2.4 on an Asus P4PE motherboard for nearly a couple of years and all of a sudden I'm having major USB problems. At first it seemed like the controller was losing track of my devices (like external drive). It would be like I was disconnecting and reconnecting the device. Then some ports would work and some wouldn't. Now when I try to connect a device Windows can't find drivers for them and they won't install. All are plug-and-play devices (hard drive, scanner, card reader).

I removed all usb devices from Device Manager and restarted so Windows would reinstall them. However, Windows isn't able to reinstall the usb controllers. Says it can't find the device drivers. I've tried letting Windows find them automatically and I've tried telling it to look at the disc I have from motheroard manufacturer (Asus). Still can't find the drivers and won't install.

I have tried installing USB manually from the Asus disk and I get the message "There was a problem installing this device.....The driver installation file for this device is missing a necessary entry."

Any ideas? Thanks, Chip

[pam123]

Do you have a restore point you can use?