usb ports have stopped working

I just posted this one:
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, brand new, that since yesterday won't recognize the Dell optical mouse. It gives an "error 43". I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver without success. I got on Dell on-line tech support and their guy worked on it for over an hour and 3 reboots without success. What is going on? We plugged the mouse in when we took it out of the box and it worked for over a week just fine.

What the heck is going on with Windows 7 and these USB device driver problems? Did MS once again screw us with a product that wasn't ready for prime time? I'm really ticked off.

To dmunnro55
You need to download and install the latest intel matrix storage manager software/driver because AHCI is enabled in your bios, and what happens during installation of W7 is W7 installs the Intel driver, but for correct functionality you need to install the intel matrix storage manager after installation is complete if you dont it will cause the problems: you can find it on your driver page under sata drives (select your version of W7) or the intel site :

Drivers & Downloads=


You will find it at the intel site - http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx
Select chipsets - chipset software - intel(R) matrix storage manager - Select Operating System - select Windows 7 (64bit OR 32 bit) - select drivers - select intel(R) matrix storage manager 8.9.0.1023 - download and install.
(make sure you don't download the floppy configuration utility by mistake) - it will show up if you select utilities.

Those are taken with nothing in the usb slots. When the problem first started happening it didnt say usb mass storage in that one slot. That didnt appear until i plugged a flash drive in to see if it would work, which it didnt, but its said that since.

obadagibidaz
I think you should run the W7 DVD repair utility - START install - when you reach the repair option - select and follow instructions - this should fix the problems - then make sure you dont install anything without scrutinizing it, and setting up a restore point, also so you could type this in search - click start - click search - type "change device installation settings" and select "never install drivers from windows update".
If that still doesnt work you need to reinstall W7.
Also, I 'm assuming you have tried a system restore around the mess, if not do that firstly - type system restore in search - and select

well system restore didnt help and i didnt get the windows 7 discs with the package, just recovery discs, so i guess im re-installing windows

big fail, f u microsoft

Good decision - you can waste a lot more time trying to fix a problem, as such, getting frustrated etc, then you would by just reinstalling.:).
Start backup next time, you can include a system image - a lot less problems, as it copies the whole drive. For the system imagine you will need a separate partition or drive as you cannot use the same drive the OS is installed to.

Actually, after realizing i cant save my music library to anything now, i decided not to re-install windows just yet.

ive read thru other forums since and this seems to be a pretty common problem with windows 7. some people have said theirs started working again after a few days or weeks later, but they also said the problem would come back, so im gonna wait this out a little and hope someone comes up with a solution in the meantime.

Thnx for your time by the way guys, whest, much appreciated

Since your not reinstalling you could run this to check your system files - click start - all programs - accessories - right click command prompt, and select run as administrator, and type this in command prompt, or paste it in by right clicking the window, and select paste - to copy just highlight it, and press ctrl+c : SFC /scannow. You maybe able to use the recovery disk to find the files if any are corrupted.