I'm running out of suggestions... you said you've used the same USP port for other devices, right? Was that recently? Have you tried other devices since you started having this problem?

Just for kicks, right click on MyComputer, click Properties, Hardware tab, then Device Manager. Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers list, right click each one and click properties, look in the Device status area to see if it says "This device is working properly".

Do you have the OS for your handheld installed to the laptop? You dont need that for Desktop Manager to work, but if you don't, might not hurt to install it.

nevermind...