Losing connection with USB drives

My Windows XP computer has gradually been losing its connection with
USB drives and the printer, and now seems to have lost contact
altogether.

Other USB devices, like mouse and keyboard work OK.

For a while rebooting would make it possible to communicate with USB
drives, and would cause stuck printer pages to print, but now on
rebooting it shows the printer as offline, and even if I switch it to
online, it does not print. 

Any suggestions?


-- 
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk