Problems with USB drives

Recently, whenever I try to plug in any type of USB Mass Storage Device into my XP Home computer windows gives me a balloon saying that the device has malfunctioned. Clicking on the balloon yields a list of all used and unused USB ports with the device listed as Unrecognized. All other USB devices work fine, the WiFi card, a joystick, they all work. I’ve tried every port all with the same results. I have tried reinstalling XP to no avail, so it probably isn’t a driver problem. I also don’t think it is a hardware problem, not only because the other USB devices work, but because I have booted Linux off of a Live CD and it was able to mount the drives. I’m now at a loss as to what it might be. Any ideas?