faulty usb port and shutting down problems

Try shut-down,on starting tap the F1/Help key,enter the
BIOS,go to the exit area,select,set up default config-
uration,or load set-up defaults,then exit saving changes
90 mns for a download! In windows updater,try the hard
ware updates section,(Lower Left)to view hardware dwnl-
oads on specific devices.
-----Original Message-----
my parents bought a windows xp home edition computer last
christmas. the usb port has never worked, not for our
printer or our handspring visor cradles. i checked to
make sure the port was attached to the motherboard, plus
cleaned all the dust inside the computer case. i went to
device manager, which said that the usb root hub and the
universal host controller are both working properly. i
tried uninstalling the hardware and then reinstalling it,
but the port is still not recognized. i tried to get
into
bios and check the irq for usb but i can't even restart
my
computer properly to get the prompt for bios -- the
computer hangs at "windows is shutting down"!
i checked the windows support site and found a few
updates/service packs that claim to fix the shutting down
problem at least, but each take approximately 90 min. to
download. is there anything i can try/do that would be a
lot simpler???
-leyjfk
.