I agree with that sentiment. It would be more convenient, but at this juncture I cannot agree with @elbanditoroso; I believe is it more of a physical issue.
But to cover some bases here; you have a working USB device (such to the caliber of a flashdrive, not a routing hub) that you can use to make sure that the port is not working correct? I mean by this, take said flash drive, plug it into the working port, establish that it does in fact work and read, then take it out of that port and plug the exact same device into the other ports to establish that they do not work. If this is true, then you’ve already moved passed steps 2 and 3 with the enable/disable and driver update. The next step would be to make sure that it is physically attached. If so then I have no other reason to believe that it is anything but a bad port that the OS cannot detect for some reason.
Perhaps this is because it is a motherboard attached USB drive and since one attached drive is working, the OS believes them all to be working
If you want you can try to re-establish the connection yourself. (assuming it isnt attached to the motherboard permanently [though I’m sure it is]). Turn it off, unscrew the bottom screws (under the rubber feet), pop it in half and push firmly on all the cables/wires/connectors to be user they are all firmly seated.
Why was argument in parenthesis? Are you trying to say that it is not a statement to establish a point using reasons on why something is right or wrong? Because I believe it is.
As previously stated, I agree that being without your machine for a few weeks can be a pain. The part I was referring to was:
“and then “gifted” with a different, refurbished computer that has none of my programs on it.”
But I guess my original comment was clear enough for some. ~shrug~