Toshiba laptop has start-up and USB issues

My Toshiba Laptop (L305) is approx 1 year old. Earlier in the week when I turned it on - I simply got a grey screen (versus the Tosiba logo and windows logo/music). I turned it off and tried again. Same thing. After 6 attempts it finally turned on - and windows and desktop opened. Since then - other strange activity - like I can't print docs... I assumed that was a VISTA thing - because the printer is not vista compliant (although it has been working...). But then I realized nothing that plugs into the USB works now - and I get an error message saying ''USB device Not recognized'' which will keep re-appearing even after I remove device... Help? Is my system about to crash? I am scared to turn it completely off - because I'm not sure it will start-up again...