Endless Paradigm

You can try going into Device Manager and uninstall every device which is USB related.  Then restart and Windows will reinstall all the drivers - see if that helps.

i did do something like that before on a previous computer. I was using a USB keyboard and mouse at the time which promptly decided to stop working. All i could do was hit the reset button. I'll try again except with a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. I'll just go and dust them off  now.