So I decided that I would dust off my old ASUS G75VW laptop which was originally running Windows 7 to see if I could get Windows Xp working on it.

I added a second drive, installed 32bit Windows XP SP3 but after the first install after a few reboots suddenly all USB devices would stop getting detected. I thought it was something caused by the anti-virus I installed (AVG) so I decide to do it all over again, reinstall, etc. everything works great, I use a driver pack this time to make sure all drivers are installed, several reboots, install a bunch of software - no issues.

Then I turn off the laptop instead of rebooting and the next day ... no more USB devices again. This time I recalled that I had ALSO turned off the laptop the last time.

So I wonder what could be causing the issue? Luckily it's a laptop so I have a track pad & keyboard on the laptop itself but I need the USB ports for connecting my external keyboard & mouse. I already tried uninstalling all the USB drivers & rebooted but no luck. Shutting down & starting back up does nothing. The odd thing is: the keyboard lights also don't come on so I wonder if the USB ports don't even provide power?