Keyboard/mouse not working in windows

[MattyI]

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

[Ferrit]

Welcome to windrivers Matty1

Need to know is the mouse/keyboard USB?

[Ya_know]

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...

[MattyI]

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

[Ya_know]

Does this line of thought sound logical??

-MattyI

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!

Good luck!

[Cave_Dweller]

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.