laptop free resources (code 12)

[abr]

the laptop i have is a higrade 8640

until very recently it was ok working quite well using it to surf the net and also to upgrade my dreambox wirelessly through a linksys wet11 fitted to the dreambox
however it is now giving me problems
i can't connect to the net and also the usb devices will not work
when i go into the system and device manager i find a lot of exclamation marks in yellow beside quite a few items

display adapters
bus host controllers
modem
network adapters
realtech ac97 audio universal serial bus controllers

right clicking on these show that "this device cannot work until i free up resources code 12 error"

apart from these faults the laptop works ok and all programms perform ok

i have read and checked various cures for this problem but have not found a solution yet

wonder if anyone knows what i could try or will a reinstall of windows xp do the trick