Windows Vista plug and play works like crap

hello ive been having extreme ammounts of trouble with getting flash drives mice and sd cards to work and i have no idea why. also if it helps im running a dell inspiron 1501

specifics: every time i plug in a pnp device i get that message about installing a driver which i apparently need a cd for

You should not need a driver to operate most flash drives, but if this is an upgrade you may be lacking drivers for a USB host controller, etc. Contact your motherboard manufacturer for these drivers.

Dell normally includes a disc with all the required drivers on it in case you need to do a reinstall but any driver you need will also be available to download from their website.