First thing is did they ever work?
If they did work and now don't it is most likely a loose cable from the back of the ports to the
motherboard or they were disabled in the BIOS.
There is no real way of telling which ports correspond to which in the Device Manager.
--
Dave Vair
CNE, CNA, MCP, A+, N+

"ljl56" <ejdaniel@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1135614626.540145.173380@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
> New ipod for my daughter and tried to plug it into my front usb ports
> which suddenly don't work. My empty one in the back works. how can I
> restore the front ones? When I try deleting all the usb's from the
> device manager, I wind up eliminating my ability to use my mouse. how
> can I know which item in the device manager corresponds to my front usb
> ports?
>
> I'm frustrated -- I guess this is like the old fashioned missing
> batteries after opening xmas gifts.
>
> By the way, the front ports won't work now for other devices either.
>