Turns out that 1 USB port on the PowerBook is dead, thanks to the former user either forcing something in or out, as the 2 middle pins are pushed back and up into the plastic (what I call pallet) inside the port. It will need a logic board replacement to correct the problem, otherwise no other issues. Turns out that this is the lower-end Rev. D model, with a Combo Drive. I have already swapped some RAM sticks with the iBook G4 to max out the PowerBook, since I plan to use it a real secondary computer and not a backup. The iBook now has 768MB of RAM (good enough for Leopard) and the PowerBook has 1.25GB. Went ahead and upgraded to Leopard.
In the coming weeks I plan to swap the logic board and replace the Combo drive with a Superdrive and upgrade the original 60GB 5400 rpm Hitachi HDD (shivers recounting the problems he has had in the past with Hitachi). I'm looking into a small SSD, but PATA SSDs aren't cheap at all.
One day, one day....