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Keyboard & Mouse not working - even in BIOS

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by owl282820

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Hi folks. Almost suicidal with this one. Any hdelp would be appreciated. I have a Fujitsu Scaleo desktop running XP SP3. USB keyboard and mouse. Both wired. Last week, when using the computer both the keyboard and mouse froze. I waited a while to see if they would free up, but in the end I had to shut down using the power button.

Now when I switch on, the mouse and keyboard are still not working. So, I cannot get into BIOS, safe mode or anything. I have reset CMOS too but to no avail. The OS is OEM, so I don't have an XP CD, only a "system recovery disk". Anyway, I don't want to lose all my files. Any ideas? Please!!!

12 replies

by seanferd

As you say, they don't work in BIOS.

Either your keyboard and mouse went at the same time, or the USB ports went bad. There may be a fuse for the USB that was blown.

You aren't going to lose any files. Put the drive in another computer as a slave to access them.

Have the system checked out or replaced.

by owl282820

I have USB ports both connected directly to the motherboard and also via PCI cards. I've tried them all and none of them work. What's the likelihood of all dropping at the same time?

by seanferd

Unless they are all powered off the same circuit, where the graphics and drives aren't.

Do you have any other option for connecting a keyboard besides USB? If so, get into BIOS and see if USB has been turned off (which also seems unlikely since you reset it).

Power surges also like to selectively fry things, though.

by charliespencer

Do you get any errors during boot-up? Does the system finish booting up the operating system?

I assume you've tried another mouse and keyboard, or tried yours on another system.

by nickgreene

Go to a computer store (not a chain store) and I'm sure if they have one they'll sell you a ps/2 keyboard for cheap. They might even have a used one, to at least let you do something with your computer.

What other USB devices do you have hooked up?

by charliespencer

I'm not familiar with a Fujitsu Scaleo and couldn't quickly find a hardware specification. If it's less than four years old, it probably doesn't have a PS2 port.

by owl282820

I do not have a PS/2 port on this computer, and I have tried the keybord and mouse on another computer and they work fine.
The boot takes me through to the Windows XP splash scrfeen, then the boot cycle starts all over again and continues to loop. I have taken the CMOS battery out for 1 hr and replaced it and it didn't help. Have tried taking the hard drive out and putting in another PC to save data with the help of an IDE / SATA adaptor, but the other PC doesn't seem to recognise the HDD. Put it all back together again and still no mouse or keyboard, and the boot loop continues!
Help.

by charliespencer

Get a hold of a Linux Live CD and boot from that, or borrow someone else's Windows CD long enough to to boot. You're not interested in installing / reinstalling, just see if your mouse and keyboard work in that environment.

by owl282820

Thank you my friend, but to boot from CD you need the keyboard. "Press any key to boot from CD".

by charliespencer

and any floppy drive. Maybe if the CD is the only boot device, the system will boot from it.

Also, I assume this is a Windows CD you're trying. They're configured to require a keystroke before booting. Do you have any other kind of bootable CD (Linux, vendor restore, virus scan, etc.) that would not have a keystroke requirement? All we're looking to do is determine if the mouse and keyboard work in any environment.

by cmatthews

"Press any key to boot from CD" is usually a message from the Windows CD or restore CD, you should not get this from Knoppix (or any similar Linux boot CD).

If this still persists, disconnect the HDisk to test the Linux CD (everything loads into RAM). Once booted, return to tell us if the keyboard/mouse works...

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