Keyboard and Mouse unresponsive at startup

[texasyesfan]

Hey All:

First time posting here; hope someone can help me figure this out.

Recently, my system contracted a virus (several, in fact) that somehow managed to get by my antivirus software. I was unable to eradicate them, no matter what I tried, so I took the drastic step of formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows (and everything else, of course). I actually had to reinstall Windows 98, then Windows XP on top of that, since my version of XP was an upgrade that looks for an existing OS before allowing you to install it. Everything seemed to go fine with the reinstall, and I proceeded to update XP with all the recommended patches, including SP2. At a certain point, I got tired, shut down the system and went to bed. The next day, I started the system up, and everything seemed to work correctly, except that my keyboard and mouse would not respond. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It was as if they were not even attached. Unable to do anything else, I pressed the reset button on the computer, and after the reboot, everything was working fine. The system has behaved that way ever since. On a cold boot, the mouse and keyboard do not respond, but after a warm boot, they work fine.

Figuring something had gone wrong during the reinstall process, I attempted several system restores to earlier points, all to no avail. I finally decided to reinstall Windows XP again, but once again I had no luck.

I have an old PS2 keyboard and a USB mouse which I connect to the PS2 port using an adaptor. I have used these guys for years without problems. I finally decided there must be a problem with the PS2 controllers, so I got a PS2 to USB adapter and plugged them in to a USB port. Of course, it didn't work.

So, any ideas? I am almost to the point of starting the whole process again, formatting the HD again and going back to installing Win98, then XP, etc. Or, god forbid. getting a Mac. Yes, I am that frustrated.

JAS

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Welcome to the Windows Forum!

I very much adore your avatar (the YES logo), and I will do as much as I can to help you.

First of all, you do not need to install Windows 98 first, even if XP is an upgrade version. If you try to install the upgrade version on a freshly formatted HD, it will ask you to insert the previous Windows CD for checking, but you do not need to install it.

In fact, Windows 9x to NT (2K or XP) does not upgrade well, it is much better to do a direct install of XP.

However, I don't think your mouse / keyboard problem has anything to do with that. The way you describe it, it sounds more like some hardware is failing. But what - I don't know.

Wait until some of the UK people login; some of them are much better versed on hardware than me. They may have some ideas.