Usb Hell

[MediaSlayer]

I run xp on a pentium4 1.60ghz 224mb ram HP pavillion750 computer. I have used the "original bundled software recovery" partition on the hard drive to reformat many times(to correct some things), and the current install of xp and all my software is working great except for my ports. Sometimes I accidentally bump something in the back and my mouse doesn't work and I have to turn the computer off by unplugging it to get it to work again(it happened during system recovery). Plugandplay confuses me. Take my webcam for instance, I installed it and it worked ok except the picture was split right in half with the right side showing a certain view minus any red, and the left side showing a certain view minus any green or blue(I think). It was still usable, sort of. Since it's always powered up and on when plugged in, I unplugged it. It has never worked properly but one or two times since. Now it doesn't work at all it just says"device not recognized" when I plug it in. My printer says the same thing, and I've tried many times, I am installing the drivers correctly on both, everytime I try the printer isn't recognized or if is, it will not print anything. I even bought an expensive parallel cable, it still does not print, but it recognizes the printer(sometimes). When I get pc-doctor to look at my usb ports, the one the printer is connected to says"device failed ennumeration". Does plug and play forget you have a certain device if it is unplugged? When I plug something in(except for the mouse) it prompts me to install the device, even though everything is already installed(drivers too). Also there is a faint memory of noticing an irq conflict but that shouldn't affect plug and play, should it?

[CornerPocket]

How long have you had the system? Have you noticed the date/time changing erratically? Not a definite solution but could it the that the Cmos battery is about to die and not allowing the system to hold the any board settings? Or perhaps the board itself is about to go.
Just my .02 censt on the subject..................see what others suggest.

[MediaSlayer]

I just did a memory test, a processor test , and a usb test in PCDoctor and all three tests came back as passed. I just clicked "printer test" out of curiosity, and then turned on my printer and a pop-up from my firewall came up asking for permission to connect to microsoft and something about "run dll as an app". I closed it without even thinking. I realize now that could have been xp trying to get the printer thing right by downloading something from the microsoft server. I give up.

Also, there is a popping type sound that occurs randomly during sound playback. If you play an entire song, you will hear it once or twice or not at all. It doesn't just happen with one file in particular, anything with sound.