No keyboard or mouse

[Hodsocks]

I have a computer here which was passed onto me because the keyboard was not working and the mouse was intermittent. It is running Windows Xp Pro.
I booted it into windows and checked the driver seemed ok, which it was. I have since changed the drivers but now neither keyboard or mouse work. I know both are OK as they are from another machine I have here.
I have tried going into safe mode but still no success.
I think it is a problem with windows because the keyboard works for me to access the bios and also if I run my Micro 2000 Microscope software both keyboard and mouse work OK, hence my thoughts that it may be a windows problem.
I have since tried to do a repair install of windows but of course I have a problem when it asks me for the cd-key which is as far as I can go.
At this moment I suspect my only course of action is to reload windows completely unles any of you guys have any other suggestion.

 

[Nodsu]

If it's a USB keyboard, try a PS2 one and vice versa.

 

[Th3M1ghtyD8]

To make sure it is definitely not a hardware problem, it might be a good idea to get/make an old dos boot disk with mouse drivers, and test the keyboard and mouse from that.

Common causes of intermittant keyboard & mouse faults are usaully caused by dirty or damaged connectors on the motherboard, which are usually not viable to be repaired, unless you are very handy with a soldering iron

 

[alphnumeric]

That is a strange one. If it was a driver problem I would expect it to work if you booted from the cd. Are they PS2 or USB. First thing I would try is to clear the cmos (reset the bios) or load fail safe defaults in the BIOS. One setting to look at is USB keyboard and USB mouse support. It's not what it sounds, when enabled it will let your USB keyboard and mouse work in DOS. If that is enabled and you are using a USB Keyboard I am thinking it's a USB problem. Your PC loads the drivers needed for the USB keyboard to work in the BIOS. After the bios is done and you get to windows it's windows that loads the drivers. If that is the case try another USB port. If it's connected to a PS2 port I'm totally baffled. If it was a PS2 port problem I wouldn't expect it to work in the BIOS screen either. One thing that can blow a PS2 port is unplugging or plugging in a mouse or keyboard with the PC powered up. Please don't take this the wrong way, but double check to see that you don't have the mouse and keyboard reversed in the PS2 ports. It's easily done if the plugs aren't color codded. I don't think it would hurt anything, but you may get some strange things happening if they are swapped.

 

[Hodsocks]

Everything was connected OK, both ps2 ports.
I have reloaded Win XP and everything is now working ok, but it was a strange one I have to admit.