A real treat...

I got one of those Barbie\Hotwheels "computers" in here. Talk about POS... wow anyways I turn it on and it pops up with detecting things like the monitor or the keyboard etc... it's only USB no PS/2 ports... so if it's detecting the keyb or mouse... how can I use either of them to set them up if they're not setup? basically, windows hasn't detected the mouse and/or keyb yet...yet it requires input from them... but they're not setup yet, because it requires them to set them up... AAAAAGHH.... is there a way I can tell windows NOT to detect anything new? the keyb works in DOS...

Safe mode? What version of Windows are we talking about here...?

right sorry.... win98 and safe mode both the keyb and mouse work.... as soon as I boot it into normal mode it detects the monitor... so I disconnect the monitor until windows "finishes" loading but it detects the keyb and neither the keyb or mouse works... it's a logitech cordless, I've also tried our own logitech wired keyb and wired mouse... no difference

Check the device manager ( in safe mode) to see if there is anything listed for the keyboard and mouse. If so try removing and booting to full mode. Another thing to look for is software for the mouse. I've seen 3rd party mouse software confuse the crap out of windows.... The next step would be to try the same with the usb. Also another thought that just poped into my head ( yes it's very noisy inthere sometimse) if you can get into cmos see if an irq is assigned to the USB. If not try givingit an IRQ.

when I was checking the device manager like you said I found the devices like they should be and Logitech software installed. I stopped logitech stuff from loading at startup but no change. And the usb legacy is enabled in BIOS. But once I read that it got me thinking. The computer has 4 USB ports, I tried using the customers USB stuff in each port until I found one it worked in! Anyone ever hear of specific USB port driver installations before? of course it was the 4th port I tried :)

So the initial problem is "workaround"ed but why would it be like that? is there a setting or something I could change to make it universal like I would assume it should be?

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Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

when I was checking the device manager like you said I found the devices like they should be and Logitech software installed. I stopped logitech stuff from loading at startup but no change. And the usb legacy is enabled in BIOS. But once I read that it got me thinking. The computer has 4 USB ports, I tried using the customers USB stuff in each port until I found one it worked in! Anyone ever hear of specific USB port driver installations before? of course it was the 4th port I tried :)

So the initial problem is "workaround"ed but why would it be like that? is there a setting or something I could change to make it universal like I would assume it should be?

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I've seen it before when installing a webcam.

2 front panel USB ports but only one worked for the cam.

I'm guessing that port 2 was daisy-chained from port 1.

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Originally Posted by a d e p t

I've seen it before when installing a webcam.

2 front panel USB ports but only one worked for the cam.

I'm guessing that port 2 was daisy-chained from port 1.

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The ports work as I've attached another mouse now and it detected fine (once I was able to use another input device to click next :) and I've also attached a USB network card and it works fine too... it looks like THAT specific mouse/keyb HAS to be connect to port 4.... and it will detect in others but you don't have an input device to click next.

I've having my other mouse still connected... then disconnecting the cordless mouse/keyb and putting it into another usb port. Doing so freezes the system... ah well at least it's working sorta now.... meh...

thanks for everyone who took the time to reply... the winner is Shard92 for jogging my brain enough to smack loose a solution that works :P

I've seen that before as well. The USB device has to be plugged into the port that it was originally installed in. I don't know if you CAN make it universal. Usually this has been a printer or a scanner but maybe it's your case as well.

Although usb ports all look the same to you and me, windows enumerates each one independently, moving an installed usb device from one port to another trigers a fresh driver install, obviously a problem if it's an input device and the driver needs user intervention... To me this is a serious flaw in the implementation of a standard designed to make things easier, at least with ps2 you knew where to put the keyboard and mouse (they even colour coded it for you!). If you have a pc with 4 or more usb sockets, like you, and only one works, well, seems like a step backwards to me.
Ho Hum, rant over.

Some of the Gateway "adorable-media-ain't-it-cute-pizzabox" computers have specific USB ports as well. Similar situation, USB everything, no PS/2. However, the keyboard has to be plugged into a specific USB port (out of 4 or 6) for it to show at all. This is not mentioned anywhere on the case, just dumb luck that we found it at all.

As for the Barbie/Hotwheels PCs - absolute junk. No expansion possible at all unless it is USB. Useful only for scrap.