acer aspire 5101 usb port and orbicam problems

Okay, I have an acer aspire 5101 notebook running XP professional sp2. Recently I've encountered a series of problems.

1. My usb ports on the side and back of the computer are not working. Sometimes they will work and then stop functioning shortly afterwards, and sometimes they won't work at all. It's quite frustrating. Though curiously my mouse works fine. It's just everything else they have an issue with...
2. The Acer Orbicam used to work fine but now if it is switched on, I get white lines then the computer blue-screens and restarts.

I have tried to:
1. remove all references to the usb ports and hubs in device manager so they reload the drivers on restart. No cigar.
2. set the power supply to the usb keys to never switch off.
3.Uninstalled and reinstalled the orbicam drivers and software. Nada.
4. throw the laptop through a wall.

Please help. My brain is going to explode. :cry