usb ports do not work at all

Get into your device manager and scroll through all of your USB Controllers. The ones with a yellow triangle indicating issues means usually the driver(s) needs to be updated.

Or it refers to a hardware error.

I forgot to state: you could disable the power management on the USB hub. Windows tries to disable devices when not in use to save on power. As above, tree branch out the USB Controllers, root hub and right click properties. Tab Power Management and uncheck where it says allow PC to turn off device.

Save and restart your PC.

Also, they are probably USB 3.0.

Shaun