Originally Posted By: Westside Steve
..... Dell XPS desktop i7. Should have plenty of power to run USB drives. also it's plugged into the back not the top. WSS
Weird. I guess the tips from Mario you already did ... My guess is update the mother board's BIOS; read on a forum that the Dell XPS USB stuff had some BIOS fixes: XPS BIOS - USB errors

PS Check the BIOS version you have using a tool like: BELARC ADVISOR (free download), or press F2 or DEL on bootup's first screen to find out your BIOS version. If it's older than the latest, download the the update BIOS bin, put it on an USB stick that works LoL. Usually there's an update routine from within the BIOS. If you're not sure, get some techie-help; you can freeze a mainboard by making mistakes.

Make sure this BIOS update .BIN file is meant EXACLTLY for your mainboard model (got a manual?). Also check for the latest chipset drivers; in Belarc Advisor you can see which one is mounted.

If you accidentally freeze the mainboards bios, there's usually a hard ware BIOS installer USB port and button to press on power up, marked on your basic connector print at the back of your PC. Do this with a BIOS bin file in the root of a connected USB stick. This happened to me once, a life saver, but i have an ASUS mainboard. F