USB speakers quit today

I'm up at the office today b/c my home network is screwed up, and I came prepared with my iPod and Logitech V20 USB speakers. Well, all was going fine until they just quit without warning! Now I'm without tunes with a couple of hours to go here.

When I try to plug them back in, Windoze tell me that I've plugged in a unrecognized device and they won't work (duh). The light comes on, so they're getting power, but other than that they're just dead. They don't require a driver, so wtf?

I'm going to try them on my home computer to see if it's just my work laptop, but I suspect they're just toast for no reason at all. Any ideas? Did their time just come?

My USB watch did the same thing to me. It was toasted.

Argh... what the hell would cause that? Those speakers were damn good travelers, IMHO.