usb ports not working on macbook

hey, was seeing if anyone can help me... i have a 13" white macbook, and neither of my usb ports are working. they will not recognize anything or charge anything. does anyone have any suggestions of what i can try? i would rather not erase my whole computer, but if its a must, its a must... thank you in advance for any reply

Try resetting the NVRAM first to see if that solves the problem. If it doesn't, the next thing is to run the Apple Hardware Test on the machine to see what it says.

Also take a look in your System Profiler application to see if the USB ports are showing up.

ok so tried reseting nvram, and that didnt work.... i also did the apple hardware test, the regular one and the extended one and both came back as no problems found.

looked in the system profiler and usb ports says its on there.

so can usb ports just go "bad" or is there anything else i can try. thanks for your help chscag

I just went through a dozen or so threads from various Mac forums all with the same problem. The solutions vary: Some said to power down the machine for 30 minutes and then restart. Another guy said to reset the SMC.

One guy even suggested removing the PRAM battery for awhile. I honestly don't know what will work. If the USB ports are dead because of a hardware problem, there isn't anything you can do because that means a new logic board.

Do this as a test: Plug in an external hard drive to one of the ports. Turn the hard drive on and let it spin up. Now open the System Profiler and look to see if the drive is listed.