Solved: Constant USB error on XP without any USB devices attached

Check the owners manual for the location of a card reader if you have one. Some are installed in a drive bay, others are just slots in the front panel, or under a cover. If you have one, you can unplug it from the motherboard and see if it is the culprit. Be sure to note the position of the wires so you can reconnect it correctly. Most OEM systems have the Owners Manual on the hard drive, or it can be downloaded from the manufacturer's support site. You could also have a USB Floppy Drive if your system has a floppy drive, rather than a standard Floppy Drive, which uses a wide 34 conductor ribbon cable.

Sounds like a hardware problem, but could be a corrupt driver.
You can try re-installing the USB drivers.
Right click My Computer, click Manage
Click on Device Manager
Look for anything with a Red X or a yellow Exclamation point.
Double click any device with one of those marks and check the Device status section and report back.

To re-install, you would right click and uninstall everything under Universal Serial Bus controllers, then reboot. The system should detect and re-install the drivers.

If it is the hardware, you can disable the onboard USB controllers (In the BIOS would be best, and in Device Manager) and install a USB controller card. These can be found for $6-$30, and most provide 4 external ports and one internal (for card readers/usb floppy)
USB Addin Cards at Newegg

I have tried reinstalling USB controllers in normal and safe an neither worked..

I looked over the owners manual.. And i dont think i have what you are talking about.. Heres a link to the manual i was looking at could you skim over it just to make sure..http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/en/om/U70350LRs.pdf

Im pretty sure i have just the standard floppy drive.. I checked under floopy drive in the device manager an it said standard nothing about a USB floppy..

When i Bought this computer i only got the OS cd to go with it this is the 1st time ive seen that manual and the 1st time ive noticed that flap with the two extra USBs.. Tested those out a bit.. the ipod was regonized in the itunes program but i didnt see it in the device manager.. Tried a Logitech USB mouse and the light would flicker when pluggin it in.. And i Tried a printer and during installation after following the on screen directions on how to connect the printer I would have to wait a little bit and then it would say the printer is not connected..

So am i backed into the whole new PC corner?

I don't see any mention of a Card reader and the floppy looks like the standard type that uses a 34 conductor ribbon cable instead of USB.

Sure sounding like a hardware problem with the USB controller.

You can try running the Dell diagnostics, see if it has a test for the USB controllers and can confirm that there is a problem with the USB controller. Without some type of loop back device to communicate with I'm not sure how useful the test would be though.

The BIOS (System Setup on pg 111) only has an ON/OFF setting for USB Devices, so I doubt if that would have any bearing, but only takes a few minutes to turn off, reboot, then turn back on.

Re-installing the chipset drivers is worth a shot as well. They can be downloaded from the drivers page.

The system has 3 PCI slots and one PCI-E slot; if you have a dial-up modem and are using an option sound card instead of the on-board Audio that would still leave one PCI slot free. USB add on cards also come in the PCI-E flavor as well and include Firewire ports, but are more expensive than the PCI version. Still cheaper than a new PC (but not as much fun)

Is the OS cd you got with the computer a windows installation cd or a Dell recovery cd? It`s possible that your motherboard chipset drivers, and other drivers are not installed, depending on which OS cd you have. To answer your questions from post 1, i wouldnt worry about updating the bios unless that proves to be the problem, if done wrong you can render the motherboard useless. Repairing your OS will depend on which OS cd you have also, some versions of windows have a repair install option, not sure about the recovery cd. Installing the chipset drivers is fairly simple. Have a look here for info and you can download the correct drivers for your system.
http://support.dell.com/support/top...ds/en/drivers_help?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~ck=anavml
I use one of the Linux live cd`s for checking hardware. There are many to choose from, my favorite is Puppy Linux, it`s small, has good hardware detection, usb support, windows fat32/ntfs read/write support, and is a good data recovery tool. You can go to Distrowatch and get any version you want, download the .ISO file and burn it as a disk image. Boot it up and if your usb and other devices work ok with it, your hardware is probably ok and you have a driver/installation problem.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=puppy
It`s also possible when you installed the new hard drive something got knocked loose, check all your connectors on the mb.

Sorry for the delay..

I tried running dell diagnostics but after choosing Boot to Utility Partition i got this message and couldnt go any farther..
"Utility Partition not available- F1 to retrey boot, F2 to Setup Utility"

Reinstalled chipset still no success..

I dont have the option sound card on this PC just the on-board Audio..

So i can get a card to install for USBs?

The OS Cd is windows OS reistallation CD.. so should i try an repair the windows XP?

I tried and tried and just couldnt burn that ISO file to a disk.. I have Nero