USB Problems

Hi,
I am having some strange problems w/ my USB connections.
First example:
I just bought an MP3 player and when it is connected via USB, the 'Puter makes the USB connection sound, the player charges but the connection never gets made. The player goes on trying to connect forever. I have tried the player on another computer and everything works fine. If I look in the My Computer directory you do not see a removable disk for the USB port.
This is an XP MCE emachines T6500 that has given me all sorts of weird problems since I bought it a few years back.
The reason I know it is the USB connections, ( and it is all of them, not just a particular one ) is that I tried to install a printer a while back and I have the Driver Disk. When going through the install procedure, you get to a point where you plug in the USB cable and wait for the computer to detect the printer. Same scenario, you get the USB sound and all but the set-up program can never find the printer and times out.
Has anyone had a similar problem? any ideas or plans of action?

The reason I say the computer had given me weird problems is other than the above problem, my New Hardware wizard starts at each boot because of a Vid card and slave HD. The vid card came w/ driver disk but there is no diver for the PCI bridge that it has for dual slotted machines and the HD never came w/ a driver disk but I am asked for it every boot.

Thanks in advance to any tips/help. Bleeping Computer has been a great help to me and is greatly appreciated.

All of your problems may originate from the same source.
Turn it off
Unplug it
Open the case
Look at the power supply
[Shiny box at the top with the wires coming out of it, the wall cord plugs in the back of it]
If it says Bestec on the label I suggest you cange it ASAP !
Most emachine's come with a Bestec power supply
Bestec power supplies are best known for failing & hrying the motherboard in the process.
It sounds like you are having early signs of power problems.
The USB ports power the device , like a MP3 player, & if there isn't enough power the device simply doesn't work right

Edited by fairjoeblue, 24 July 2009 - 12:43 AM.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Thanks for taking your time to look into this w/ me.
I have not opened the case yet but I do not think that will be the problem. It must be something in the Windows XP OS or drivers for the USB ports as I have Ubuntu installed on my slave drive and the MP3 player works fine there. I would just use the Linux except all my music is on the windows HD and I can't get the two to see each others' HD to easily migrate them over.
Thanks for the heads up though! I'll check the power source as they are cheaper to replace than the whole sys or motherboard.

Also, I may have placed this in the wrong forum. If the mod(s) want to move this to external devices, please feel free.