XP Media Center Ed no working Peripherials

so i am working on an odd problem on XP media center ed.

long story short, NOTHING attached to the computer is working unless you boot into safemode.

to me it sounds like this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890546

to the extreme.
are there any possible causes that any one can think of.

XP is up to date, it was working and just suddenly not any more. older computer i am thinking possibly a USB host controller has crapped.
hard to diagnose over texts but thats what i have been trying to do for some one and its difficult, that and being out of touch with XP for so long makes things hard.

side note:
the hotfix download requires e-mail now? whats with that? do they send the link to your email?

If you don't want to give them your email, Google this: WindowsXP-KB890546-x86-ENU.exe

The fact that only Safe Mode works makes me suspect of a driver not working properly.

I thought it was odd about the email thing that's all.

I thought that too about safe mode but the hotfix replaces a good chunk of the base USB driver.

I can't think of much other than this hot fix or something hardware wise is stating to go bad