I just tried plugging a keyboard, usb flash drive, and mouse into some of
the ports and leaving them there for at least two minutes, nothing.
There's no brief flash of the LEDs in the mouse that normally happens
when you plug it in even if it's not enabled. Should I bring in a multi
meter and see if the port power is just plain off?

right now there are five device connected but only two have attached.

addr 1: full speed, self powered, config 1, UHCI root hub(0x0000),
Intel(0x8086), rev 1.00
 port 1 powered
 port 2 powered
Controller /dev/usb1:
addr 1: full speed, self powered, config 1, UHCI root hub(0x0000),
Intel(0x8086), rev 1.00
 port 1 addr 2: low speed, power 100 mA, config 1, DELL USB
Keyboard(0x2003), DELL(0x413c), rev 1.00
 port 2 addr 3: low speed, power 40 mA, config 1, product 0x4d09(0x4d09),
Primax Electronics(0x0461), rev 0.10
Controller /dev/usb2:
addr 1: full speed, self powered, config 1, UHCI root hub(0x0000),
Intel(0x8086), rev 1.00
 port 1 powered
 port 2 powered
Controller /dev/usb3:
addr 1: full speed, self powered, config 1, UHCI root hub(0x0000),
Intel(0x8086), rev 1.00
 port 1 powered
 port 2 powered
Controller /dev/usb4:
addr 1: high speed, self powered, config 1, EHCI root hub(0x0000),
Intel(0x8086), rev 1.00
 port 1 powered
 port 2 powered
 port 3 powered
 port 4 powered
 port 5 powered
 port 6 powered
 port 7 powered
 port 8 powered

-- 
The nice thing about Windows is - It does not just crash, it displays a
dialog box and lets you press 'OK' first.
						-- Arno Schaefer