WinXP and mouse HELP!!!!

[Ronimous]

I recently installed XP without a hitch. Mouse and keyboard worked fine. Now, about a week later I find the mouse is no longer working. I have a basic mouse plugged into the ps/2 port.

I first thought the mouse was bad so I went and bought a new microsoft optical mouse with a ps/2 and USB connection thinking that would surely solve my problem. Still not working.

Problem #2. With XP booting straight to the logon screen I cannot get to the control panel as you have to log on using the mouse to get to a desktop. I tried to boot in Safe Mode, but once again get whisked away to the logon screen where I am stuck and can't even restart.

Question is this....How can I get my mouse to work without having to use it? Or how can I get to the control panel without having to log on to get a desktop? Is there anything I'm not thinking of????????

HELLLLPPPPPPPP

[RJ]

So the mouse doesn't work no matter whether it is plugged to the PS/2 or USB port ?

RJ

[Ronimous]

No, the old one will not work when plugged into the PS2....the new one will not work when plugged into the PS2 or USB. Can XP recognize USB hardware at the login screen? Thats as far as I can get...

Thanks for helping..

[HAL9000]

You should be able to use your TAB and arrow keys to navigate the login screen. Hopefully from there, once you login, the new mouse will be detected on the USB port.

[Ronimous]

Tried the TAB key, nothing....dead....so it seems the keyboard is not working at the login screen. I know the keyboard is ok because I can use it in bios to my heart's content.

Something is fouled up with XP. I'm stumped.

[Ronimous]

Now I really fouled up because I told bios to 'restore fail save settings', and now the computer won't boot. Should I clear CMOS to try and rectify this? Then I'd be able to get back to my mouse problem??

Help is greatly appreciated...

Jason

[HAL9000]

When you say won't boot, as in not into Windows, or not come up at all. If it won't come up at all, then yea, clear the CMOS. If it just won't boot to Windows, then you can either try clearing it, or go through the settings and set it up again.

[Ronimous]

When I say it won't boot I mean it goes past POST and shows me the device listing. It says 'verifying DMI pool' or something like that....and it just hangs there....and hangs and hangs....

[Ronimous]

An update....

Today I used the jumper to clear CMOS. This did not resolve the problem. The computer continues to boot past the POST and the PCI device listing. It gives a message 'Verifying DMI Pool Data...", at this point it locks up. I've tried loading 'fail safe settings' and 'optimized settings' in the BIOS. I even removed all devices from the PC except the video card and hard drive.

I considered reinstalling Windows XP, but seeing as it does not come with a startup disk I'm at a loss as to where to go next. I have an upgrade version, so does that mean I have to reinstall ME and THEN reinstall XP? What a pain that would be!

Short of reinstalling XP, is there anything I'm over-looking? I cannot figure out what is wrong for the life of me.

[daisiee69]

Just a suggestion, but would someone have switched your keyboard and mouse plug.....

[Pal44]

Excellent point about the mouse and keyboard connectors possibly being switched. If not , I would reinstall XP. You do not have to reinstall Win Me. I use fdisk from my startup floppy. Then I change the boot menu from the BIOS to have my computer boot from the Win XP disk. When you install it will just ask for the Win Me disk for verification. After that you should be home free.

[RJ]

Why use fdisk from a floppy ??
If you need to reinstall, boot from the CD itself and start WinXP setup. When WinXP asks you where to install then just format the current partition again (with NTFS) and continue the installation process.

RJ

[Pal44]

Your right, basically you do not need fdisk but I use it to not only wipe my hard drive but to set up partitions and to see in my partitions (if any) are in order.

[RJ]

Ah, I see. But again, this can also be done from WinXP setup.

Anyway, Ronimous's problem is strange. Possibly some remnants from WinME cause problems and a clean install may solve this.
I'd try the clean install.

RJ

[Ronimous]

Thanks for all the info, I'll give it a try tomorrow.

I'll clarify abou the mouse/keyboard connectors...they were not switched because i have plugged, unplugged both of them about 40 times.

One question. To boot from my WIN XP disk I need to go into BIOS and change primary boot device from floppy to CD ROM?

Thanks again,


jason

[Pal44]

That is what I have to do for my system. I have an MSI K7T266 Pro 2 motherboard. If I just do a normal boot it tries to read the blank hard drive first and says there are no system files and just hangs. For my motherboard, I press F11 to get the boot menu.