Keyboard/mouse not working in windows

I got a problem.

I sat down to do some work last night on my XP home machine and as I started using my computer the mouse stopped working. The last thing I did before the failure was hit Ctl-N in IE from a hotmail screen. I used my keyboard to reboot, and when it came back up I had keyboard control for all of 5 seconds, and still no mouse. Now they're both not working.

I turned off the computer, then powered on, and was able to use F5 to get to the boot menu, so I figured it was only a windows problem. From there I booted into safe mode, but the mouse/keyboard still didn't work. I tried several options from the boot menu, including using settings from the last successful boot, but that didn't work either.

Here's the odd thing: I tried booting from CD, but my computer wasn't set to look at the CD drive before booting the hard disk. I hit F2 during boot to access the BIOS menu to change that feature. The computer recognized the F2, but once I was in the BIOS menu the keyboard didn't respond (my bios screen doesn't use the mouse).

What do I do next? Create an emergency boot floppy and try to boot to DOS to retrieve essential files? Reformat? Throw it out the window? The only thing I haven't tried is putting the mouse in a USB slot, but I have no idea if that will work given the symptoms. Additionally, I haven't changed any mouse or keyboard settings recently.


Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.


-MattyI

Welcome to windrivers Matty1

Need to know is the mouse/keyboard USB?

You say that the keyboard stops working in the BIOS too, that's a bad thing. Have you tried a new keyboard and mouse?

If you boot off of a sys'ed floppy, can you type at the DOS prompt, or does it stop working there as well?

This could be bad...real bad...need new motherboard bad...

Here's an update on this situation.....

My current keyboard is ps2, and the mouse is usb, but it being used on the ps2 via an adapter.


I brought home a usb keyboard and ps2 mouse yesterday (along with a boot disk). Before I used either of them, I booted the computer with my current mouse in the usb port (it's usb, but was being used with the ps2 adapter). The mouse still didn't work.

I tried the new mouse in the ps2 port, and regained control of the mouse and keyboard. I guess the old mouse was causing some sort of electrical problem (it's an optical)?

I'm going to try the new mouse/old kybrd combo for a few days, just to be sure it's not a motherboard issue that happens to be intermittant.....


Does this line of thought sound logical??

-MattyI

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MattyI

Does this line of thought sound logical??

-MattyI

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It is definitely plausible. I have seen ps2 mice that work on newer computers, but not on older (at all), so I am sure something like this is possible. I find it odd that the keyboard was affected by the mouse, but it certainly is possible! :thumbs:

Good luck!

I've seen a bad mouse take down the ps2 bus under XP. If you sit there and toggle the num lock during boot-up, you'll notice that it works until sometime after the windows XP splash screen appears. Disconnect the ps2 mouse and you'll be fine (knowing Windows keyboard commands is a help). I ended up installing a usb mouse.