In device manager go to universal serial bus controllers and expand this. Then now click on "view" on the computer management window tab on the top and click on "show hidden devices", this will bring up all usb drivers for any usb device that was previously connected to the laptop, so this will evident by a greyed-out look to them. To clarify, I am talking about devices that was connected before and its possible somehow these drivers could have been corrupted. By uninstalling these drivers and forcing windows to take a fresh look at things may kick start the usb ports.
In saying that this is not so easy to since it may required special permissions, but if you seven forums they have tutorial but I cannot remember the exact article title...