The Data Is Invalid

I have 3 devices that no longer work/never worked with my system.  I have an inspirion 5150 and the thing is slowly going downhill.

 

My Printer stopped responding months ago and testing it reveals that it is not the printer.  It's a lexmark z23.  My Sony Playstation Portable is also not recognized.

I just got a cord to connect my nokia 6800 to my computer, and surprisingly it doesn't work either.

 

In all three cases the problem is not the device or cables.  I have checked and followed the instructions to connect/install them.

 

I keep getting the message "the data is invalid" whenever the computer tries to find these peripherals and install their drivers.  Every attempt to connect the device leads to the computer recognizing it, trying to install the drivers and aborting itself with "the data is invalid". 

 

I googled results and found that this is fairly common when someone upgrades a Dell with XP Home to XP Pro.  I have not done that, but apparently XP is really buggy concerning plug and play devices.  I had to hunt all over the internet for help when I got a Samsung Yepp. 

 

I tried the fixes I found through google, which involved allowing "full control" permissions on all my USB controllers, and then trying ton reinstall the USB controller drivers.  No success.  My USB stuff seems to be up to date, and adding full control to everything did nothing. 

 

What else could be causing this? 

 

I seriously doubt a full system re install would fix this.  Considering the machine is 3 years old, I doubt going back to square 1 will do anything but lose all of the files I haven't backed up yet or are too large to move.

 

Does anyone have any ideas, is there something in the registry I might've missed?  Do I need to go to intel and search out all the USB components and find their driver updates?