If your peripherals work with the back panel ports, the drivers must be OK. And with XP pro SP2 you should not need additional drivers for the port.
Others have already suggested that you should check the connectors. If your cdma got recharged, then at least the 5V pin must be connected correctly, but the other pins may not be.
OR, you may have inserted the connectors correctly but there could be something wrong with the wires going to the front USB ports. One of them might have got detached from the solder point.
Once, a computer I assembled for a client had the hard disk light on all the time. After checking everything i could think of, I concluded that the mobo must be faulty. I called my supplier who sent a replacement, but the light still stayed on. It turned out that the insulation of one of the LED wires had been cut through by a sharp edge in the cabinet, and it was shorting to the cabinet metal.