Vista did have a few issues
If it doesn't work in other sockets, its probably the USB host bus adapter drivers messing around. If you go into Device Manager (right click on My Computer, choose Properties, its in there on the left somewhere) you'll get a list of USB Serial Bus Controllers. Anything in there have a yellow exclamation mark next to it?
Like this:
http://windows-exe-errors.com/wp-con...own-device.jpg