Hi,
I hope that someone will correct me if I am wrong in the following.
USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 is a hardware matter and there is no software that upgrades USB 1.1 to USB 2.0. USB 2.0 is backwards compatible with USB 1.1. The only thing is that you don’t get the higher speed.
I believe that your problem depends on what OS you are running.
My son is giving me old computer things instead of throwing them away. About a year ago I got three very old laptops, among them a Dell. It was made for Win 98, but I have installed Win 2000 pro SP4. This comp has USB 1.1. It runs very slow and I should run Win 98, but I still prefer Win 2000.
Now I tested the comp with my digital camera and the camera appeared as an extern disc. I have earlier transferred files to that comp with my USB 2.0 memory without problems.
If you want your laptop to recognise your camera, CD-drive etc, I believe that you need to have Win 2000 pro SP 4 or higher installed.