All USB ports stopped working  

Try this: Power down your laptop, remove the battery,and unplug the power adapter. Now push the power button for a couple of seconds like you are going to turn it on. Plug everything back in and see if they work. The USB bus has a safety feature where if you overload it, it shuts down. I had it happen to my desktop PC. What actually happens is the +5V is turned off and the only way to reset it is to completely drain the power supply. I had to unplug the PC and try to turn it in to remove all the residual power in the power supply. Just rebooting wouldn't fix it.

If its a driver problem, as a result of windows update, try using the roll back driver option and reboot.

alphanumeric said:

If its a driver problem, as a result of windows update, try using the roll back driver option and reboot.

What's the roll back driver option? I'm pretty sure that the drivers haven't updated between when the ports were working and when they stopped.

Between the installation and the ports not working, the only thing that I've installed is MS security essentials. The ports have worked with the software installed at first, but have since stopped.

I've just checked out the roll-back driver option on the internet. I'm currently at work but dont believe the roll back will be an option anyway, because i can't select the device in 'device manager'. This is because its not recognised.

Try it for the actual USB Host Controller not the device plugged into it. It will be grayed out if only the one driver has ever been installed.

Hey, you can try typing services.msc on Run, this would show your system services. Make sure that the Plug and Play service is enabled. Also make sure that there are no firewalls blocking Plug and Play.

Or you can try looking at your BIOS a little deeper.

Cheers for the suggestions guys, but sadly nothing has helped. The powering down made no difference, and I wasn't able to use the roll back - simply wasn't able to click the button, so i presume there has only ever been one driver installed. I've also tried running the computer in safe mode, and have the same issues.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Not talking about the devices u plug in but the actual usb controllers themselves: what if u uninstall the usb host controller and the root hub and let windows find them again?

The only thing I have not seen in this thread is to check you BIOS for an update. You might need to flash the BIOS since this happened during or after upgrading from Vista to 7, the motherboard might have an update. You can use this program:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
Run CPU-Z to see what your motherboard is. Post here what the motherboard is. Also you can google the Mobo name and the Words BIOS to find the latest BIOS updates usually. If none can be found, and if it is from an OEM like HP or Dell etc, call the manufacturer as they probably have seen this issue already (a lot probably).

Edits:

Caution: Flashing the BIOS is a technical process and if you do this process, please post back here for instructions or walkthrough with doing so. Each type of BIOS has its own process for flashing it.

http://ts.fujitsu.com/support/downloads.html

This is where you should go for drivers. I don't know if they have one for the USB, but they should. an Update for the BIOS might also be in here.Just click on drivers and then select your model.

I would like you to fill in your computer specs so we all know what your system is.

Did you check to see if you have any driver conflicts?

Is USB turned off in Bios?
Find a USB driver and reinstall it?

Drastic, but try uninstalling "PCI Bus " in Device manager
Reboot, see if Win 7 reinstalls all the drivers in correct order and re_enables USB.