USB ports cant run plug and plays such as ipod...

Question

USBs work fine. I always use them. My printer, Keyboard, and mouse are all hooked to them. They can even download pics form a camra pretty much on its own. But when i plug in a plug and play all I get is an icon that says "safe to remove". In the icon it will even have the name of what i have pluged in. I tried to update my drivers but whan i do i lose control of my mouse and keyboard and have to shut it off the get them back. Its a Dell Optiplex Gx 280. Windows XP