Solve the problem....

[pam123]

I stumped a tech at MicroSoft ( a real one ) with this before a guy " who'd seen it all " happened by and got us both out of trouble.
The problem: fresh install of WindowsXP Home. The HDD was zeroed out, not because it had troubles but because I'd never run a disk diagnostic and now, while switiching, looked like a good time. The disk passed all test, no trouble there.
So I pop the XP CD into the drive everything is going well.
No wait! My mouse disappears, my keyboard goes absent, XP never notices. More to the point, neither does the BIOS.
Yet, I arise from disaster.
But can you tell how?
Exercise brainpower!
Scott at MicroSoft got it. How about you?
XPHome eliminates every in-put device. What do you do? Besides panic ( and yes, I did! ).

[Tahoe]

Originally posted by pam123 More to the point, neither does the BIOS.

Does this mean the BIOS doesn't see the keyboard and mouse or that the BIOS sees the keyboard and mouse but XP does not?

[pam123]

It means the bios didn't see the keyboard and mouse.
Disconnecting both of them while the computer was turned off, and then turning the computer back on without them got no error messages of any sort.

[cobra]

um ,maybe because they are usb and u did not have usb enabled in bios???
That's one way to have that problem....

[Tahoe]

PS/2 ports gone bad?

[Tahoe]

PS/2 ports went bad and then you used USB keyboard and mouse?

[mairving]

It doesn't mean that the BIOS didn't see the mouse or keyboard. It doesn't care about the mouse as much as the keyboard. It just means that the BIOS was set to not pause on errors. There is no way that XP can load before the BIOS anyway. It is physically impossible.

[pam123]

PS2 ports are it, I don't have USB enabled.
Now you get to figure out why and to figure out how the problem was fixed.

[Tahoe]

Originally posted by mairving It doesn't mean that the BIOS didn't see the mouse or keyboard. It doesn't care about the mouse as much as the keyboard. It just means that the BIOS was set to not pause on errors. There is no way that XP can load before the BIOS anyway. It is physically impossible.

But, then why would the mouse just drop off along w/ the keyboard?

[homey]

Hi,

Did you enable ps/2 support and reserve an IRQ for it?

Also, KVM switches can cause problems.

[Tahoe]

Originally posted by pam123 PS2 ports are it, I don't have USB enabled. Now you get to figure out why and to figure out how the problem was fixed.

Not sure why. Did you pull the battery and reset the CMOS to fix the prob.?

[Dan]

Pam you're such a tease...
give us a hint: is the solution in Windowsxp or the bios??

[Tuf]

I have never installed Home but I have done dozens of XP Pro installs. I have had this or something similar happen several times. While they had similar problems there have been several different fixes as well. I probably won't remeber all of them but here goes.


They have all had ACPI compliant bios's that have had the ps/2 port set to autodetect, some have been because they were run through a switch box, they remainder I believe have been because they had a USB mouse plugged into the ps/2 port with an adaptor.

Most of the problems can be fixed by installing the latest bios and hooking the hardware directly to the computer during the install. if you are doing unattended setups M$ has some code on their site you can add to sysprep file that will help eliminate the problems or force recognition(reinitialization)of ps/2 devices.

I have been able to cure all the problems I have had using one or more of the above methods....what did you do?

[pam123]

Okay Dan and Tuf you guys are close.
We shut down the computer and disconnected the keyboard and the mouse. We then restarted the computer without them, the bios took no notice.
We shutdown again, reattached the keyboard and mouse and this time XP recognized them.
In effect we forced XP to reinitialize both peripherals.
They're now working fine.
Prescription from the Microsoft techs?
You need the latest bios update for you mainboard!
The BIOS and the OS weren't cooperating!

[Tuf]

One problem people run into that is not really a problem from M$ standpoint is that alot of early or upgraded bios' are listed as being ACPI compliant and they really aren't up to snuff. Too alleviate the problem M$ simply blacklists those bios' and install similar to the way it would on an AT system. People get pissed because they no longer shutdown the same way they did before. But really it is a good thing for the most part.

There are a few mobos that are blacklisted that shouldn't be if they have they very latest bios but I think there are very few. Asus P2B-F are a good example. They have always been listed by Award as bsing ACPI compliant but they never really had decent power mangement. So XP just lumps them into the blacklist. If you have the latest bios you can over ride it by pushing F5 when it asks you to push F6 to load SCSI drivers. It works well then.

There are few more examples and it's likely yours is one of them.