Lost mouse and keyboard control: Advice sought

[Guest]

I've been given an old PIII 900MHz PC with W98.

I recently noticed the mouse would ocassionally freeze, but now, when
it boots up I get no mouse control at all and the GUI prompt "Windows
did not detect a mouse attached to the computer. You can safely attach
a serial mouse now". There is no keyboard control either to close this
meassage. It's almost like the PS2 ports don't work.

I plugged the mouse and keyboard into the PC's USB ports and the
keyboard functioned enough to allow me access to the CMOS. I cleared
the BIOS (removed the battery) and also returned the CMOS to the
default settings, but still there is no mouse or keyboard control via
the PS2 ports or USB ports (other than access to the CMOS).

I would appreciate any advice on what to try next. It's not the HDD
as I swapped in another HDD operating system and the same error comes
up.

 

[Pen]

I've been given an old PIII 900MHz PC with W98.

I recently noticed the mouse would ocassionally freeze,
but now, when
it boots up I get no mouse control at all and the GUI
prompt "Windows
did not detect a mouse attached to the computer. You can
safely attach
a serial mouse now". There is no keyboard control either
to close this
meassage. It's almost like the PS2 ports don't work.

I plugged the mouse and keyboard into the PC's USB ports
and the
keyboard functioned enough to allow me access to the CMOS.
I cleared
the BIOS (removed the battery) and also returned the CMOS
to the
default settings, but still there is no mouse or keyboard
control via
the PS2 ports or USB ports (other than access to the
CMOS).

I would appreciate any advice on what to try next. It's
not the HDD
as I swapped in another HDD operating system and the same
error comes
up.

Have you tried the mouse and keyboard elsewhere? If no, you
should
as the first step.

 

[kony]

I've been given an old PIII 900MHz PC with W98.

I recently noticed the mouse would ocassionally freeze, but now, when
it boots up I get no mouse control at all and the GUI prompt "Windows
did not detect a mouse attached to the computer. You can safely attach
a serial mouse now". There is no keyboard control either to close this
meassage. It's almost like the PS2 ports don't work.

I plugged the mouse and keyboard into the PC's USB ports and the
keyboard functioned enough to allow me access to the CMOS.

Does this mean that you had previously left the PS2 keyboard
connected and with it, you could not get into the bios?

Check the motherboard for a 5V/5VSB power jumper for the PS2
ports (can sometimes be called a wake-by-keyboard or
power-on-PS2 (or similar meaning) setting. Set it to 5V,
not 5VSB, if applicable.

I cleared
the BIOS (removed the battery) and also returned the CMOS to the
default settings, but still there is no mouse or keyboard control via
the PS2 ports or USB ports (other than access to the CMOS).

I would appreciate any advice on what to try next. It's not the HDD
as I swapped in another HDD operating system and the same error comes
up.

If you have a multimeter, check the voltage on the PS2 port
pins, you might have a blown fuse. If no voltage, check the
continuity of the PS2 fuse. If you lack the ability to do
this, you could seek a PS2 PCI card or just keep using USB
keyboard and mouse.

 

[Guest]

Does this mean that you had previously left the PS2 keyboard
connected and with it, you could not get into the bios?

Yes, with a PS2 keyboard and mouse connected neither would work.

Check the motherboard for a 5V/5VSB power jumper for the PS2
ports (can sometimes be called a wake-by-keyboard or
power-on-PS2 (or similar meaning) setting. Set it to 5V,
not 5VSB, if applicable.

If you have a multimeter, check the voltage on the PS2 port
pins, you might have a blown fuse. If no voltage, check the
continuity of the PS2 fuse. If you lack the ability to do
this, you could seek a PS2 PCI card or just keep using USB
keyboard and mouse.

I checked the voltage on the both keyboard and mouse PS2 ports and
they both show 5 volts, so the fuse has not blown

To sum up, keyboard and mouse control is not available via their PS2
ports, keyboard control to the CMOS only is available by USB (but no
further than this in the boot process) and there is no mouse control
via USB. Via the CMOS I've enable USB mouse and keyboard control but
this makes no difference. I'm stumped......

 

[kony]

To sum up, keyboard and mouse control is not available via their PS2
ports, keyboard control to the CMOS only is available by USB (but no
further than this in the boot process) and there is no mouse control
via USB. Via the CMOS I've enable USB mouse and keyboard control but
this makes no difference. I'm stumped......

There are a couple more things i'd try:

1) Clear CMOS

2) Check whether PS2 ports might be powered by 5VSB rather
than 5V. That is typically controlled by jumpers near the
ports, should be shown in the board manual. The goal would
be to put (or leave) them jumpered to 5V rather than 5VSB.

Failing the above two attempts, I would suspect that either
the PS2 port has been stressed to the point where some
traces/connections are damaged, or the Super IO chip itself
is damaged. Presuming you had a multimeter to do the
aforementioned 5V measurements, if you can visually trace
the PS2 traces then check continuity at the port pins and
along the traces as far as possible.

Is it possible one of your PS2 devices (mouse/keyboard) has
malfunctioned, have you tried each individually?

 

[Guest]

Failing the above two attempts, I would suspect that either
the PS2 port has been stressed to the point where some
traces/connections are damaged, or the Super IO chip itself
is damaged. Presuming you had a multimeter to do the
aforementioned 5V measurements, if you can visually trace
the PS2 traces then check continuity at the port pins and
along the traces as far as possible.

Is it possible one of your PS2 devices (mouse/keyboard) has
malfunctioned, have you tried each individually?

Thanks Kony. I will remove the Motherboard and let you know how I get
on - could be a few days as I will be away from home this week - but I
will reply here with the result. I do appreciate your advice.

I can now boot into safe mode (only) and have mouse and keyboard
control via USB, but still no PS2 control.