Problem connecting new devices - windows cannot find common drivers  

I think you would have to look at what else has been installed and correlate that with when the problem started work back in effect there may be a problem somewhere.

One thing you can try is use system restore to return your machine to an earlier point in time before the problem happened and see if that cures it and then work out what programs or downloads that you currently have installed that are not installed and then install one by one and check USB ports.

Another option is to use msconfig and go to startup and uncheck half the startup items and reboot and see if that cures the problem then checkmark one satrtup item at a time doing a re-boot and cheking if the usb ports are active.
If the usb ports are not working after unchecking half the startup items then uncheck a further 5 items and check after reboot until you find it works.

You may find an offending startup item that may be interfereing and find the program or driver that is the offender.

Also in msconfig if startup items is unsuccessful click on services place a checkmark on hide all microsoft services and repeat the above.

You could try downloading revo installer and see ifthat can force an install.

First open a cmd prompt by right clicking and choosing run as administrator and type:

sfc /scannow press enter

Let it repair anything it finds and restart computer if prompted to do so.

Try and do the install again.

Did you try revoinstaller to install the program?

Bad hair day i think with that one i think totally wrapped around...

Please have a look at the document below it may help:

Help with Windows 7 compatibility problems - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows