USB Ports Stopped Working

My ASUS X83VB has 5 USB ports. I have Windows 7 64 Bit, it was a clean install 3 weeks ago. It was working fine until today, I noticed that my Ipod Shuffle wasn't recognized when I plug it into a USB port (Device not successfully installed, Device manager shows a code 43). I tried another USB port, no luck. Tried one on the back, and it works. It turns out that the Shuffle only works on 2 of my 5 ports. That's not good.

So I did the usual routine of restarting, uninstalling / reinstalling the driver / iTunes, and uninstalling / reinstalling the USB driver. I even went as far as doing System Restore as far back as 11/23 (and I know it was working fine back then). Even the system restore didn't help (so I reversed the restore). Reckon it might be the Shuffle's problem, so I hooked it to another computer. Works fine as usual, so I know it's not the Shuffle. Then I unplugged the Microsoft mouse from my other computer (and the mouse works fine on that other computer), and plug it into this one. The mouse is not recognized for ALL USB ports. Awesome.

I realized once I turn on my computer and go to Device Manager (without plugging in anything), I still see an "Unknown Device" with that yellow triangle with and exclamation mark, and I can't get rid of it regardless of uninstalling, updating, or disabling the driver (and can't rollback since the button is faded). I really hope it's not hardware failure, though I really don't think it is since it's happening for multiple USB ports.

If anyone has any ideas on my problem, it will be greatly appreciated. I spent half of my day trying to troubleshoot this now, and my boss is not going to be happy if he finds out that I haven't been doing my work. But I can't focus on my work unless I get this fixed! >< And Reinstalling Windows is a pain, especially after that two days of work fine-tuning my Windows 7.

To summarize, my Ipod shuffle works on 2 of my 5 ports, and my USB mouse works on none of my ports.
The yellow mark in the device manager is next to an "Unknown Device" in the USB controllers. It is there even if I have nothing plugged into my USB ports.

I have 2 on the back, 2 on the right side, and 1 next to audio jacks (left side). Only the 2 on the back are working for my Shuffle, and none of them are working for my mouse. Thank you very much for your help, by the way.

Hmm, I can't open the computer now (or my boss is going to get REALLY suspicious), so I'd have to do that when I get home tonight. What kind of cables should I be specifically looking at? Also, are you sure that this cannot be caused by software failure? My computer is still quite new... (a little more than a year old)

Oh well, sucks to be me ><. And this piece of crap is just out of warranty too. I'll try to open the case and pray that it's a loose cable. I'll also try a repair install if that doesn't work. I might as well go as far as clean install. But yeah..... if it is my MB failing, I have no idea what I should do.