i am suspicious that perhaps it is malware or some other form of malicious coding that somehow disabled or disengaged the hardware, but i really have no idea. help! i have an older computer and this is my only USB port, so i rely on it for my printer and digi cam.

Note the distinction “autorun” NOT “autoplay.” Like say for example, you plug in a flash drive and the script goes in and transparently executes malicious code like a rootkit, all in the background.