USB receiver there, "working properly", not connecting

OK, situation: Have typical cable modem wireless router setup. Desktop 1 is wired, laptops 1 and 2 and desktop 2 use USB plug-in receivers. Everything has been fine for ages.

Desktop 2 --emachine, Celeron 2.67ghz, 248 ram, xp home, serv. pack 2 installed --will no longer connect to the wireless network. Tried both windows wireless and SMCWUSB software (came with the receiver). Other usb receivers have the same problem if used on desk 2, which is-- device manager says the usb wireless receiver is working fine, it fires up fine and finds multiple networks of varying strengths, including mine at full strength, but cannot be induced to connect to any of them. Repairing the wireless connection only leads it to say it cannot finish repairing it because it cannot connect to the network. Disabling or deleting the wireless connection in connection manager does nothing, the problem recurs when windows recreates the new connection.

Tried: Rebooting, reinstalling, recreating new connection from scratch, using different receiver on bad machine, using bad receiver on good machine. Uninstalling wireless software and reinstalling. Ipconfig the first go round gave me this:
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Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : whatever
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . ... : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . ... : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-11-7C-D6-CF

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SMCWUSB-G 802.11g Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-F7-43-24-B7

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::ffff:ffff:fffd%5
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
-----------------------------------------------------
Media disconnected sounded wrong, so following instruction I found somewhere, I did this:
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1.Start Registry Editor.

2.Locate the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Tcpip\Parameters

3.Add the following registry entry to the Parameters subkey:

Name: DisableDHCPMediaSense
Data type: REG_DWORD (Boolean)
Value: 1

Note This entry controls the behavior of Media Sensing. By default, Media Sensing events trigger a DHCP client to take an action. For example, when a connect event occurs, the client tries to obtain a lease. When a disconnect event occurs, the client may invalidate the interface and routes. If you set this value data to 1, DHCP clients and non-DHCP clients ignore Media Sensing events.

4.Restart the computer.
----------------------------------------------------------

Rerunning ipconfig after, I got this:

----------------------------------------
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : whatever
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-11-7C-D6-CF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.202.24
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%2
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%2
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%2

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 4:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SMCWUSB-G 802.11g Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-F7-43-24-B7
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
------------------------------------------------------------

All of which seemed way more encouraging except it had absolutely no effect on the connection at all. I might as well have not done it.

I am including no router info because, a) I'm a moron about that stuff and b)all the other wireless machines are chugging along just fine as though nothing as happened and c) this all happened on desk 2 after a session of uninstalling (through windows control panel>add/uninstall programs) several old things, most prominently a couple of versions of aol. AOL 9 and some coach version, whatever that means. Anyway, they were uninstalled through windows and now we can't connect. I didn't really think there was a connection between this and the problem, but can't think of anything else.I am loathe to reinstall aol even if I could find an old version. Any ideas?

Sorry if this is long, I'm trying to be conprehensive. Thanks for any help or ideas.

-umberto

Resolution (of sorts): While I have no idea what the problem was, randomly plugging and unplugging USB devices before and after using the wireless receiver broke whatever logjam existed. After firing up a new iPod shuffle for the first time, suddenly the wireless works again. So, if you have this problem, I guess I recommend you buy yourself a new iPod shuffle. Worked for me.