usb devices not recognized - no device manager

[TeresaS]

My computer(running Windows XP sp2) suddenly stopped recognizing any of my
usb devices.
It says "No drivers are installed for this device" no matter which usb port
(of 4) that I use.
I have found that under Computer Management there is no Windows Portable
Devices option. and therefore no device manager.
does anyone have any ideas how I might fix this?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Mike Cawood, HND BIT]

My computer(running Windows XP sp2) suddenly stopped recognizing any of my
usb devices.
It says "No drivers are installed for this device" no matter which usb
port
(of 4) that I use.
I have found that under Computer Management there is no Windows Portable
Devices option. and therefore no device manager.
does anyone have any ideas how I might fix this?
Thanks for any advice.

Roll the computer back to before the problem occurred using System Restore
and check for malware using Ad-Aware 2007 & Spybot Search and Destroy both
before and after using System Restore.
Regards Mike.

 

[TeresaS]

For anyone with a similar problem in the future, this is how I finally fixed
the problem. After 5-6 hours of troubleshooting, I tried someones online
suggestion to unplug the computer from power as a way to turn it off. Then
plug in the USB device, plug back in the power, then turn the computer back
on. When I did this, all of my USB devices were once again recognized. Hope
this helps someone.