I need some computer help

Last summer I purchased a new computer that had Vista installed.  I had heard enough about Vista that I didn't want to do that, but my older computer was just about to give out on me, and I knew that Windows 7 would be released within a few months.  Vista was as bad as I had heard, but I held off getting Windows 7 to give Microsoft time to work out the bugs.  A few weeks ago I installed 7 on the computer, and it worked great.  It seemed to eliminate almost every problem I had...until recently.

A couple of weeks ago my USB ports quit working.  I needed to sync my Blackberry and couldn't do it.  My I-Pod also wouldn't sync, and I couldn't download pictures from my camera.  I googled the problem and found hundreds of similar complaints.  This seems to be a major problem with Windows 7 and Microsoft obviously has no fix for it.  I read several different ways to supposedly fix this problem and had no idea how to even attempt most of them.  The ones I could do I've tried, but they didn't work.  After the first round with the USB ports not working I got them to work again for about a week.  I got everything synched and got my pictures off my camera, but it's time to sync everything again, and once again the ports are not working.

One other thing I've noticed.  If I shut down my computer I drop my Internet connection.  When I power the computer back up I have to unplug my modem and router and plug them back in to restore my connection.  Once I do that it works fine unless I shut everything down again which I've done hundreds of times lately trying to resolve the USB problem.

Do we have any readers who might know a fix for this problem?  I have an excellent computer guru, but he doesn't recommend any of his clients install a new system until the first service pack comes out. (I wish I knew that before I installed 7.)  He hasn't worked on any computer with Windows 7 and doesn't believe he could solve this problem anyway.  Any help anyone could give me will be greatly appreciated.

In the meantime, avoid Windows 7 until you are sure the bugs are worked out.  Microsoft does this every time they release a new system.  I should know better than to switch to a new system, but I keep thinking they will become responsible and not release a system with so many defects.  I am just about to switch to Apple!  Thanks for any help you can give me.