Mac Mini is disconnecting all usb drives whenever any new USB device is plugged in.

I have 10.6.7 on a Mac Mini 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of ram and a 60 gig hard drive.
It seems that every time I plug or unplug any USB device, it disconnects all the connected USB drives.  This seems to be something new, but I have not really often used the other USB ports either.  It is very frustrating, as you can imagine.  If I plug one drive in, and then plug another drive in, plugging the second drive it often disconnects the first one.
But it is not just drives.  I can have only one drive plugged in, and unplug and replug the keyboard, and the USB drive will disconnect.  Then I will get message about how I did not safely disconnect the drive.
Any help would be great.

Yes.  One is a mini Toshiba USB drive with no other options for power.  But even unplugging an iPhone USB cord with NO iPhone attached to it will cause the drive to drop off.  The second USB drive I plugged in today had the same issues.  Basically I have to unmount a drive, then plug in a second device, then remount the drive using disk utility.  Very painful.

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