Hi everyone, am a complete dunce when it comes to technology so apologies to all if I'm overlooking something really simple!
I have a FUJITSU siemens laptop, with Windows XP home edition.  Due to constant crashes we uninstalled everything and reinstalled it, subsequently we had to reactivate XP.  After a trauma last night of multiple error messages the helpline were able to fix the activation problem, but now none of my USB devices are working......I have an HP printer, A USB 4 point hub, a USB trust sound 5.1 and a Seagate external hard drive.  In device manager all of the above have the yellow exclamation icon, when I right click it says there is a problem with all the drivers.  Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but error messages appear stating files are missing (such as usbhub) or that the driver is unsigned and cant be installed.  Some of the devices never had drivers in the first place, they are plug and play!!  
i would greatly appreciate any help and advice anyone has to offer, please let me know if any further details are required.  am at my wits end, stupid computer!!   Yep that sounds like a driver problem.. so go here:http://www.driversguide.com and register there it is free. and find all of the drivers that yuo need for your USB Ports... Run Everest frist and it will tell you what the model names of the USB HUBS are: site is : http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html and pick wich mirrior you are going to use and download it.. Hope this helps..Hi, thanks for the help....
I got an Everest report, which gave me the details of the devices but my problem is now that when I plug in  any of the USB devices it looks for an installation CD, which never existed in the first place.  Am most confused.......  
here is some of the report info in case it helps in any way.  or maybe its irrelevant, i dunno.  

Motherboard:
      BIOS Type                                         AMI (11/19/03)
      Communication Port                                Printer Port (LPT1)
      CPU Type                                          Intel Celeron, 2800 MHz (28 x 100)
      Motherboard Chipset                               Intel Brookdale i845PE
      Motherboard NAME                                  Uniwill 755IA5
      System Memory                                     1280 MB  (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)

    Display:
      Video Adapter                                     MOBILITY RADEON 9000  (32 MB)
      Video Adapter                                     MOBILITY RADEON 9000  (32 MB)
      3D Accelerator                                    ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (M9)
      Monitor                                           Dell P793  [17" CRT]  (4D02623CD5EY)

    Multimedia:
      Audio Adapter                                     Intel 82801DB ICH4 - AC'97 Audio Controller [B-0]

    Storage:
      IDE Controller                                    Intel(R) 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB
      Disk Drive                                        ST9100824A  (93 GB, IDE)
      Optical Drive                                     DVD+RW RW8165  (DVD:4x/2.4x/8x, CD:16x/8x/24x DVD+RW)
      Optical Drive                                     LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1673S USB Device  (DVD+R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
      SMART Hard Disks Status                           OK

    Partitions:
      C: (NTFS)                                         10001 MB (718 MB free)
      E: (NTFS)                                         85392 MB (19462 MB free)
      Total Size                                        93.2 GB (19.7 GB free)

Printer                                           hp psc 1200 series
      Printer                                           Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801DB ICH4 - USB Controller [B-0]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801DB ICH4 - USB Controller [B-0]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801DB ICH4 - USB Controller [B-0]
      USB2 Controller                                   Intel 82801DB ICH4 - Enhanced USB2 Controller [B-0]
      USB Device                                        USB Audio
      USB Device                                        USB Device
      USB Device                                        USB Mass Storage DeviceThe quickest way i've seen to solving this dilemna works for me...

Open Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager and scroll down to the bottom...
Find ALL instances of USB ports and hubs ; right clik them and select "Remove"
You will get an error message ignore it and when your done shut down the system.
Unplug ALL USB devices and re-boot. XP will automatically re-install the USB drivers for your system.
Shut down again and one at a time while powered down plug one USB device in and re-boot.
Repeat this for each device making sure you are plugging each in while powered down and you should be good to go...

patio.   8-)Hi

ok, i removed all the instances (usb hub and controllers, etc) and when i shutdown the computer and started it up again , the computer found the hardware but then a message came up asking would i like to install these drivers as they are not digitally signed by microsoft - i clicked yes anyway and another message came up saying that it couldnt find the apropriate files - so now i cant install the usb hardware - if it helps it was LOOKING for files in a folder called - service PACK, but with no luck
Right-click My Computer and click Properties.
Under Microsoft Windows XP, does it say Service Pack 2?

If not, use Windows Update to download and install SP2, which has fixes for USB support problems with the earlier release of the operating system.

If your system does have SP2 installed, then try this solution from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873169