Figured that it might be a hardware issue. I was already looking at the solution ddrgsd recommended. Only a 6 month old computer, gotta love it. Thanks for the suggestions.
Upgraded to Vista from XP Home, all was good in the world for a day or so (except the iTunes issues already widely discussed). All at once the USB ports on my Gateway ceased to recognize anything plugged into them. They still provide power, but cannot be used for input. So my printer, thumb...