USB problems

[oldhead]

When I plug any thing into any of the USB ports on the laptop the computer doesn't acknowledge them as being conected, I've scanned the hardware and it reads the ports as being there, but nothing happens when anything is put in them.
any ideas on what to do to help solve this problem if anything?
thank you for any help

[gwendes]

Please see this (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=238) thread. If this doesn't resolve the problem can you please provide more information about the product you are connecting, the model number of the notebook and anything else that may be relevant.