I downloaded some windows updates which screwed up my system(thanks Bill). I finally got it going again with some help from a Microsoft CSR, However I didn't realize that my USB ports were down until I went to use my cable modem. I worked around that by finally installing my network card. My scanner does not work and when I went looking for my USB ports they don't exist. I can't find (or more probably don't recoginize) where in the BIOS I need to go to turn the port on. They do not appear in my device manager. Prior to the upates everything worked.
Also everybody take to heart the saying that"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should" especially with Windows.
USB ports disabled by Windows update
They didn't appear at all in the "device manager". However I finally found them in the BIOS. I was staring at the setting but not seeing it and a friend pointed it out to me. The Windows update somehow switched the BIOS to "disabled". I wish Microsoft would document better the updates and what they might do. They are now back in the "device manager" the machine recognized them right away after enabling in the BIOS.
