My usb ports all quit working a couple of weeks ago. First the printer went. I tried to reload drivers for it and it claimed the device was working properly all the whole time. Then I noticed that it wouldn't recognize my jump stick. I did a search on here. I removed all the drivers and then reloaded. Same thing. All devices working properly. Then one evening the pc wouldn't power up at all, nothing. So I came to the conclusion that the power suply had died. I picked one up the next day, installed it and fired her up. The pc started fine but the usb's were still not working. I now suspect that there is something wrong with the motherboard. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there any way to check it? Thank you for reading this!

Boot into Safe mode and go to device manager. Remove ALL USB controllers and reboot. Windows should find them and reinstall. You may need to supply drivers. If Windows doesn't find the controllers that would be a good indication they are dead.

Is this different than removing them through the control panel? I did that and windows found them and reinstalled them using the drivers on the restore disc. Device manager says they are working properly. Maybe I'm not understanding the term "controllers"! Thanks for yor response!

When in safe mode you may see more than one instance of the same device. This won't show in normal mode. Contorllers are what they are. The listing in Device manager is under the catagory Universal Serial Bus Controllers. To assure that you clear all out you need to expand that heading and remove ALL listed hardware. You MAY need to manually re-install some items after reboot.