sorry for all of this. i am sorry for spamming, i did not know it would be a problem since i am the one who started the thread. it turned out to be because the arduino was not properly grounded. i connected the ground of the arduino to the ground from the wall wart and it fixed the problem. guess it could not sink enough current into a normal usb port. or whatever; i am not really sure. again, i am sorry. i was not aware i could get banned for spamming my own thread.
edit: also, should i just delete this thread? it was a stupid mistake and i fixed it on my own. but it may help somebody else down the road having the same issue i was. just a thought.