I am having a problem with my USB ports. When i start up my laptop all is fine, but after short time, varying from about 10 mintues through to an hour, anything plugged into my usb ports stops working, this inlcludes my mouse and my web cam. I get a message in the system tray saying that the device(s) is not regocnised. I have tried formatting the hard drive and starting again but the problem returned. Does anyone have any ideas??

Try plugging in *one* of the devices at a time, wait a while, and see if the problem shows up. Then connect the next one, either all by itself or in addition to the first device, wait again, and so on. Reboot after each change. You may be able to pin down a specific device, or a conflict between two of them, this way. I assume since you said that you have formatted the hard drive and started again that you mean you reloaded Windows from scratch, so your USB drivers are less likely to be causing problems, but did you load any special ones that came with your devices, vs. the default Windows drivers? Perhaps an update of those might help.

I don't think that the problem occurs because of a specific device, as even if only one is pluggedin, it stops working after a short time. Yes, you are right that i re-installed windows. I have also got the latest version of microsoft intellipoint (5.4) and the most reent driver for my camera, yet still i have a problem.