USB 2.0 Ports won't function as such! Help!

Ok, Laptop is a 4 year old Alienware M5500. It has the 2.0 Single Core, running XP media center.

Background:
A few weeks ago I was running Itunes (probably did it right there, ha ha) and I inserted a flash drive to grab something off my desktop to put on another computer and I got a bluescreen error and the laptop shut off. It won't reboot and I ended up using my ReSpawn disk and reformatted and reinstalled XP.

The Problem:
My USB 2.0 ports (three) will now only function as USB 1.1 or whatever. I always get the message "this device can run at a Higher speed, please insert into a Hi-Speed port" When I click the balloon, device manager says I have no USB 2.0 ports installed. Indeed it appears that none of my ports are listed as USB 2.0. I tried shutting down the system and pulling the backup battery for the BIOs (I had this issue a long time ago, 3+years and I thought that's how the Alienware tech got it to work again.) it didn't work. I looked into device manager and when asked to show all hidden items, I do have a ghosted USB 2.0 port driver. I just don't know how to get it back up and running! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Things tried:
1. Reloading the USB drivers, chipset drivers from alienware/dell.com
2. Re-set BIOS (or I thought I did??? Don't know if theres more too it than pulling the main battery and silver battery under system cover.)
3.Uninstalled all the current USB drivers in the Device Manager list, and restarted windows, drivers were reloaded, but USB 2.0 is still unavailable. However all three ports function, just at lower speed.

Thanks again!

 

I've seen this before, it usually indicates a faulty USB controller or that the USB device your using is faulty.

 

try reinstalling your usb controler drivers in xp these drivers need to be handeled manualy if this does not work then you can consider a clean install
if it still does not work (with reinstaling drivers) then you know it's a faulty usb controller

 

I will give it a try, thanks for the information.
Should I just download the drivers from Dell?
Also, could you enlighten me a bit more in regards to a faulty USB device? I don't really understand how the USBs still work (albeit at a lower speed) if the device is faulty? I am also assuming that they can't be replaced as I am guessing they are interlaced with the motherboard.

Thanks again!

 

if you have a m5500 you need to look in your my hive or directly on alienware's site

how it can work but only half it might be because your usb hub was faulty from the begining or because a usb device dained to much power making the higher speed usb 2.0 controler die or it could be tht your device even if stating it can run at usb2.0 speed cannot many usb key say they can while they can't

 

Yeah I don't know what happened to them. They have functioned flawlessly as USB 2.0 for almost 4 years. But now I am stuck on the slow speed.

I will give the drivers a go and post back.

Thanks again!