you can try a couple of things, go to device manager and see if the usb
ports are listed with the yellow mark.
if they are, try removing them and then reboot to see if xp will reinstall
them.
second if they are not listed check your bios to see if they are enabled.

"Raffi" wrote in message
...
I cannot get the USB ports to work on my Sony laptop,
worked before the windows xp service packs were installed
but now they don't - please help!