Usb

[Freedos.org]

One of my relatives gave me an old pc to toy around with, it served me faithly for about two years, after which it suddenly stopped recognizing hardware plugged into the usb ports. There is no plug n' play capabilities, in fact it can't recongize any hardware (ex. optical mouse, printer) plugged in. The computer is about four years old but does not have any other major problems except the one described above.

Compaq Presario 5030
Pentium II 300 mhz
320 mb SDRAM
4 mb of video memory
Dual boot Freedos + XP home

[DigitalJunkie]

USB 1.0 can not be forward compatible with USB 2.0 devices or your USB card is too old & not working properly, in either case it would be better to get a new USB card.

[zaphodiv]

startmenu->control panel->system->hardware->ddevice manager->universal serial bus controllers
Press the + to expand. Any yellow triangles in there?

[Deegin]

Does your optical mouse still show the light?

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

You may have several corrupt drivers also. Time to upgrade.

[Freedos.org]

There is a light when I plug in my flash drive, but the computer doesn't recognize the hardware.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

Flash drives are tricky, but XP should autodetect and install the necessary drivers. At least that's the case for SanDisk. You can't always trust the light. As long as it's not exchanging data and flashing, whether it's on or not doesn't matter too much. What about what Deegin said? Does your optical mouse still light up?