SOLVED
It was cables.. used a 3' good.
I'm freaking out here!
Help!!!
I fear i burned out my USB port. It was working fine this AM, but now when I attach a ESP32 or 8266 I get the popup "USB Device not recognized" and no port shows up in IDE. IF it does connect, in other cases, IDE never finishes the upload, I get a serial port error such as "something went wrong" or "cannot find file"...
I am short on USB cords, however. I am using TWO 8' litz-fabric coated USB cables of different mfr. I found a 3rd shorter cord to be defective already...