My motherboard has two USB ports. Whenever I use the one to the left (port 1?), anything I plug into it works fine. Whenever I use the second port, things go wrong; if I use the modem in port 2, the Internet connection slows down to a crawl, if I try to use it for my scanner, the system tells me the scanner isn't connected.
So, what's the problem? I have an extra set of two USB ports which can be installed onto the motherboard, should I do this?
Before I got my Internet connection, I used one of the ports for my printer - suddenly it stopped printing stuff on paper. Could this also be because of the USB port? It worked fine except that the papers came out as white as they were when they came in.

Also, does Windows XP have problems recognizing USB ports? Whenever I try to install something with USB connection, the connection options usually just show the COM ports as alternatives.

If anybody can explain/help me out, I'd be very grateful