Basically, my USB ports on my IBM Thinkpad T43 have stopped working most of the time. Sometimes, they mount and appear in Nautilus, but other times, they aren't recognized. The timeline of events on this laptop for the past few months: Started having problems after using a USB port hub. The port would sometimes work but would be fixed with the occasional reboot. Re-partitioned/Expanded my Xubuntu partition (I have a Windows XP/Xubuntu dual boot). Now the majority of the time, the USB fails to recognize devices. In addition, the few times they are recognized, the device may suddenly disconnect. Things I've noticed: The devices still receive power from my computer (I can charge my ipod..etc..) I can't understand dmesg outputs. I don't know if lsusb is telling me anything useful. My dmesg output is here: http://pastebin.com/KdNxHcFC Things start to get weird at the bottom of the file. And my lsusb is: $ lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub