USB- "device cannot start"

I'm trying to help my son with a problem he's having. He bought a used PC running win 2000, but the usb ports aren't working. I got him a mp3 player for Christmas but can't use it. He ran a registry cleaning program which found and corrected over 400 problems. When he goes into device manager/usb it says under device status "device cannot start". I told him to search for drivers, he did, it found drivers and installed them and he restarted. Device manager still said "device cannot start". I had him disable usb and restart, then enable and restart hoping for "new hardware found" but it never came up, device manager still says "cannot start". I've been helping him from over the phone, so whatever you guys suggest I'll relay to him.
OBTW, my son thinks I'm a genius , so please help me get this fixed, I'd hate for him to find out the truth. Thanks for any help you can offer

 

has he tried this to the letter....
A. Click on Start
B. Right Click on My Computer, click on Properties
C.Click on the Hardware tab
D. Click the Device Manager button.
E. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers section.
F. Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.
G. Restart the computer, and allow the computer to reinstall the USB controllers.
H. Plug in the removable USB storage device, and then test to make sure that the issue is resolved.

If not has he tried another Plug/Play item in USB Port and tried ALL ports and has he tried plugging MP3 player in another computer to see if it works. Even new items can sometimes fail. And can we have some more information on the computer as this will generate more replies..

 

Thanks for your response, yes, I walked him through the sequence exactly as you described. I'm wondering if it could be MB problem, I'm going to try to get him to take off the cover and see if he has any available slots, then maybe buy a usb 2.0 card and see what happens. Unless someone has another idea to get his operating, which we'd prefer of course. Thanks again for your response

 

Ok ... so if he and you feel comfortable with him investigating the mobo and he has got the mobo manual check the wiring to USB's connector on mobo and make sure that the Positive & Negative connection wires are set correctly , having said that if no manual reverse the wiring as it is at the moment as no harm will come. I trust you will advise him on proper procedure when opening case. And as you say if all else fails there is the alternative of a PCI USB Card. Good Luck

 

thanks again, yeah, I'm comfortable opening the case but he isn't, except to look inside for an open slot. I'll have to make a trip to his house and check it out. So it won't hurt anything to reverse the wires?

 

No there will be no harm done by changing wires around, if the wrong way usb just will not function as I know from bitter experience lol. Could be that they have never functioned if wired incorrectly. If no manual you can read off of the mobo (with a spy glass in my case) where connectors are. Also these wired ones are normally extras, but that depends on make of mobo, so has he been using these or has he been plugging into the direct mobo USB's. Would really help if you could name the Motherboard for us. Really depends on what motherboard as I wired a USB incorrectly once on an ABIT board and it would not even boot.