The computer in its current state is about 1 year old. The MB is 2-3 years old; an ASUS P7P55D MB which isn’t outdated. Computer is home built and most recent reconfig was about a year ago with addition of SSD system drive. The cd drive is an LG BDDVDRW which is not outdated or old. I don’t believe the usb ports and cd drive failed at same time as the event that Avast logged and the same time that Avast was disabled. They quit working properly but it is not a hardware failed issue.

I have done some more investigation. I have tried some other USB media and the system can see the media in all ports but does not see any security or OS related tools such as AV software. For example it identifies a usb stick with Portable Apps OS as a stick with a single audio track on it but does not see the Portable App or folders under the app.

I tried removing/uninstalling a different usb port and again the kb and mouse quit working.

I dl’d and installed Kaspersky AV. After the install both IE 9 and Google Chrome could no longer access the internet. When I ran the AV it hung at 2% because it could not get an update I guess. When I uninstalled KAV, IE9 and Chrome both worked fine.

I am quite prepared to reformat C and install Windows 7 but don’t know how I can do this if I can’t read the CD. I need to know what has caused the cd drive to function the way it is and how to correct it.

I read part of a thread (on another forum) yesterday where a user had a similar problem and when he replaced the cd drive with 2 other known good cd drives he experienced the same issue. Unfortunately the thread quit before it reached a solution.