PS/2 Mouse doesnt work with Targus Port Replicator on Inspiron 5100

Hi everyone,

I got my brand new Inspiron 5100 last week. I reinstalled XP (since I needed to repartition for dualboot) and got all the drivers installed for my Targus port replicator. I needed it for the PS/2 ports so I can plug in my mouse. I tested my mouse last week and it worked great. The little LED for the PS/2 blink as I moved it.

Now Windows XP Home seems to be acting funny and my mouse doesnt work anymore. Only the NIC, USB, and serial ports are working (they're LEDs are on) but both my PS/2 ports arent working anymore. I looked in XP services and saw the HID service was not started. I try to start it but I got an Error 126 saying the HID module was not found. I suspect this is the cause of my problem since the port replicator makes my mouse imitate a USB HID mouse and since XP suddenly cant load the HID service, then my mouse isnt working.

Any ideas on why the HID support in XP suddenly died? Also, I want to avoid reinstalling XP at all costs so hopefully just a patch or a copying a file will fix it. I looked in my windows/system32 directory and there is a hid.dll and a few hid*.sys files in the drivers directory so I dont believe I've somehow accidentally deleted them.

Hope someone can help me. Many thanks. :)