Hardware Issues

[bevills1]

A couple of months ago the power switch at front of this 5 year old Asus PC stopped working, and it now only powers on via the switch at the back of the case. Just yesterday the mouse and keyboard stopped working and thus wouldn't boot to safe mode or allow entering BIOS by pressing the "Del" key. However, boot to Bart PE, Ghost or other boot CD gets keyboard and mouse working again until they randomly stop working again; repeat boot to CD temporarily restores keyboard and mouse function. Is there an easy way to fix these hardware problems, or is it maybe time to get a new motherboard?

[hech54]

It's time to take it apart and at least have a look at it.

[redwudz]

A quick fix for the PWR switch is to just change the wires on the motherboard and use the front panel reset switch instead. They both work the same way. Using the power supply switch to shut down the PC is a really bad idea and could permanently corrupt your OS/files if you do it often enough. Especially if it's writing/reading from the hard drives when you do it.

Are your KB and mouse USB or PS2 (Round DIN connectors)? The problem with the KB and mouse sound more like a hardware failure. Especially if they won't work through Windows PE. USB uses a different controller on the MB than PS2. If the PS2 ports have failed, I suspect the MB may be the problem. You might try updating or re-installing the BIOS. The drivers for the PS2 are in there. If you are using PS2, try a USB mouse/keyboard.

[bevills1]

The PC powers down normally without having to use the switch, and the switch is only needed to restart after a shut down which means there's no reading/writing when the switch is used.

KB and mouse are both PS2, but booting to Bart PE or Ghost 2003 boot disk they both work fine and continue to work when rebooted to Windows or BIOS until they fail again later. Reboot to CD restores KB and mouse function until they fail again. I have only PS2 mice and KBs and would have to buy USB ones to try that.

The power switch problem followed by mouse and KB problem makes me wonder what might fail next and whether it's worth buying USB mouse and KB or whether it might be better to replace the motherboard. I've also read some customer reviews where some systems won't enter BIOS with a USB KB which is another possible problem if a USB KB were used.