That could be just because 98 in genreal doesn't have the best USB drivers... First Edition couldn't be that great, but I don't think it would really matter.
Other than trying other USB ports, you can also sort of force the driver to install. I assume that would be some sort of storage device... You can go though COntrol Pannel, then Add/Remove hardware, then go though the add hardware wizard. I don't remember the exact steps, but you want to go where you see a list of items to select from(like display addaptors and such, NOT things already installed on your computer) After that you should get a list of items. Choose have disk and find your drivers. Sometimes this will work, or sometimes it won't find anything.
I guess you could also try and get new drivers for your USB... But then again, windows 98 just plain isn't good with drivers. One of my old computers that had 98 on it, the front USB port would just die for no reason and seemingly nothing could get it working again untill I reloaded the machine! It was fine with Windows 2000 on it...