I got my computer back last night just before the shop closed up for the weekend, brought it home and she booted up just fine.

Problem I have now though, is the damn thing doesn't reconize my mouse or keyboard...tried a different mouse...no luck.

I did notice the mouse lighting up for a few flickers on boot up, then she's dead...didn't watch the keyboard though...

Everything worked at the shop, as far as i could tell...but I think they had it setup with a wireless mouse, since I recall the guy just unplugging two cables (power supply and monitor cable)...I don't recall any other wires (though I wasn't looking that hard) going to the computer.

So...if they had set it up with a wireless KB and Mouse, shouldn't XP still reconize my hard wired KB and mouse on bootup and do something like a "found new Hardware"?

 

I think I might have it figured out here, on a whim I unplugged the USB adapter on my mouse and plugged it into an open USB port...walla...mouse works, so I'm guessing I need to do the same for the keyboard...looks like I'll just get a new KB with a USB plug in and see how it goes.

Guess I'll have to wait until Monday to get them to fix the DIN connections.

 

It should recognize the KB and mouse automatically. They may have disabled it in the BIOS, but I see no reason for them to do that. If the computer does not "see" the KB during boot up it will give an error message stating "No keyboard found" Bypassing it with USB will work as you have found out. Still it is a good idea to ahve them enable the PS2 connections for both.

 

Before you buy a new keyboard (assuming you don't want one) go into the bios setup and make sure that the system is configured to look for a keyboard. As the system boots up from a complete power off, there is always some kind of keystroke sequence to interrupt loading the operating system. I know, you said the keyboard doesn't work. Believe me when I say "it does".

Sometimes this is as simple as F1 during a really brief period of time. Sometimes it is Alt-F8, but it is there. If the platform is not configured to recognize the keyboard, the necessary drivers in XP may not load. The menus you will discover are very straightforward and you will navigate them with ease. Do not be afraid. Any changes you make will require that you commit the changes before they take effect. You cannot screw it up. The very worst thing that will happen is that you unplug the thing and start again.

The motherboard documentation will describe setup.

Chet

 

Thanks guys, wish I'd have read this before I shot into town...would have saved me another 25 bucks...but what the heck...least this KB is clean

I still have plenty of USB ports available...I think there are 2 unused in the back...one will go for the printer, and two more up front for cameras/ipods for the kids...but hey...it's now working and I'm back to the virtual world

 

welcome back to the real world mike.