Lost USB power on a DELL INSPIEON 8600 laptop.

Question

My 8600 has two USB ports, stacked one over the other. The top one is missing the little plastic center slot thing, so I always use the lower USB. Until one night last week while in a big hurry I reached over the top and plugged into the upper (broken port) which shorted out the USB all together. I did get a balloon message that I did not get to read before it went away. I do not know what to do.