Help!  It seems that both of my USB ports have suddenly died.  Whenever I plug anything into either of them, I get the following message:

 

"One of the USB devices connected to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it".

 

I don't recall anything in particular happening recently to cause this.  I am hoping it is not hardware-related since (of course) my warranty literally expired just days ago.  Any ideas?  If this ends up being a hardware-related issue, does anyone have any experience with Dell's service in terms of cost or turnaround time?