Strange mouse and keyboard behavior.

[Caple]

My cousin called me last week asking for help, his mouse and keyboard were not working.
He turns the computer on and both mouse and kb don't work. Then he turns it off, disconnect mouse and kb, connect it again, and turn the computer on. Then it works.
I have no idea what can cause this.
Umidity maybe?
Anyone?

[redwudz]

Are they USB? Sometimes the controller loads in the wrong sequence and can cause that.

If they are the regular PS2 KB and mouse, then there may be something loading before them in BIOS. I would check for IRQ conflicts. If this is something recent, what changes were made to the computer?

If he has XP, try a system restore.

EDIT: I haven't tried this, but I he can't solve it any other way, two options: Check the Microsoft website first to see if they have the problem listed. Or uninstall the KB and mouse controllers and let the operating system reinstall them when you reboot. Backup your files before you try the second method, just to be safe.

[Caple]

Forgot to say, the mouse and kb are PS2.
Removing the controllers is a good idea. The OS was not installed at his home, so other devices were used.
I'll give a shot.
Thanx redwudz.

[ranchhand]

You may have to boot into safe mode to uninstall the mouse and floppy in device manager, at the same time removing any ghost drivers, then let Windows pick up on them again. In fact, look through and see if there are ghost drivers for most of your devices and remove them as well.

[VegasBud]

I don't know if this will help you, but I just recently had an experience that came to mind as soon as I read your post.

A couple of weeks ago, my sister called me to ask for help fixing her computer, after the keyboard and mouse "suddenly stopped working". After spending way too long having her try this and that, I asked her very specifically what she was doing when they stopped working. She said they both worked fine before she shut the computer off, but didn't when she turned the computer back on. After several more questions, she says she had turned the computer off to straighten out all her cables so they would be neat. On a hunch, I had her switch the two cables, and the problem was fixed.

The moral of the story is something I had forgotten - Always check the simplest things first, because even bright people sometimes do dumb things.

[Caple]

No VegasBud, that would not be the problem
It works from time to time, just need to reboot.
Today I'm going to take a look at his computer again.