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dimension 9100 xp home & usb mouse/keyboard problem
Here's what's happening: my daughter has problems with her computer & I am going to fix it. Note I've had lots of success fixing computers, from removing spyware to reformatting. But there's this new wrinkle.
Brought just the tower home. Attached both a USB mouse & keyboard (no PS2 ports). Fired it up. Whoa - problem: keyboard & mouse are not being recognized.
In fact when the Windows logo appears the optical mouse light goes out!
Since there are two users on this PC, the final screen is the "to begin click your user name" screen. From this point, since neither mouse nor keyboard work, I can do nothing.
Here's what I tried:
· Put both keyboard & mouse on another PC (XP Pro) - works just fine there.
· Looked at BIOS - doesn't seem to be any help here but keyboard works fine.
· Tried Safe Modes (plural) - same problem in each.
· Tried Boot Menu & Boot to Utility Partition (Hardware Diagnostics) - all tests successful but mouse works fine.
· Replaced CD/DVD with bootable IDE hard disk (XP Pro), disengaged SATA drive - failed to boot (PATA not IDE???); unfortunately no spare SATA drive to play with.
Well I've run out of ideas. Any advice would be appreciated.
PETER345
5.8K Posts
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June 18th, 2010 00:00
Sounds like a software problem that is difficult to fix.
You can get a ps/2 mouse and keyboard adapter for that machine and you can get it from Dell spare parts (or at least you could). I bought one for my 9100 for $11 and it would allow you to boot with a working keyboard/mouse to try to fix the issue in Windows.
You could also try running Linux (with a live CD, you don't need to install) to see if the USB keyboard/mouse work there. It should if it is a Windows software problem.
If it is a software problem, a windows install should fix the problem. A repair install should keep all of your data files and programs while reloading windows.
Peter