I put out a post a couple of weeks ago addressing this problem. I had an UREKA moment. My USB port would not work also and I thought about sending the whole lot back to PG for replacement. However, one day I thought I would give it one last try and I noticed that my printer was on. I wasn't using it so I turned it off. The USB hard Drive booted right up and every day since then It's worked perfectly, wih the printer turned off, that is. So I think that "my" computer has a limit on how many USB ports the system can handle properly. I have an IBM 2.2 Giga Hertz computer with 5 USB ports, 3 in the back, 2 in the front. I use the three in the back for my mouse, my keyboard, and my printer. The front two I use for BB everything HD and my I-Pod. By the way I was having problems with my I-Pod USB cable also and turning the printer off fixed that too. My suggestion is to start unpluging USB devices such as your printer until you get positive results on the BB USB port. I hope this helps.