USB mouse problem

[Eric]

I have one computer, which I believe is running Windows XP Home, which has
an MS USB optical mouse. It was working fine until this morning when it
worked for a minute and suddenly stopped. I tried a different mouse, an IBM
USB optical mouse, and it still didn't recognize it.
Nothing unusual happened to the computer that we're aware of at the time the
mouse stopped working.
A PS2 mouse works fine.
The computer does not recognize the USB mice using a USB-PS2 adapter.
The USB port works fine. I plugged in a USB joystick and the computer
recognized it.
The mice both work fine. I plugged them into another computer, which is
running Windows XP Pro, with no problems.

 

[John O]

Nothing unusual happened to the computer that we're aware of at the time

the mouse stopped working.
A PS2 mouse works fine.

While the mouse is attached, try running the Add New Hardware Wizard, which
is located in Control Panel.

-John O

 

[Kenny]

The PS2 port can't supply enough power to reliably drive an optical mouse
using a USB/PS2 adapter.
I had problems doing this, even buying a new mouse before I found out.

 

[Eric]

I did that. That was the first suggestion I found on support.microsoft.com.
I wasn't sure if the wizard would conflict with 2 mice plugged in, but since
the MS support page mentioned clicking to run it, I assumed that would not
be a problem since we can't click with the mouse that doesn't work.
I had the PS2 mouse and a USB mouse plugged in and ran the add hardware
wizard and it said no new hardware.
I did unplug the PS2 mouse for every other test on the USB mouse and did
reboot the machine. It will not detect any mouse on a USB port.

 

[Eric]

Thanks. That doesn't solve the problem but does answer one part of the
mystery.

 

[Eric]

We did just find that the fan is not running on the power supply to this PC.
Could that cause this strange problem?

 

[John O]

I did that. That was the first suggestion I found on

support.microsoft.com.
I wasn't sure if the wizard would conflict with 2 mice plugged in, but
since the MS support page mentioned clicking to run it, I assumed that
would not be a problem since we can't click with the mouse that doesn't
work.
I had the PS2 mouse and a USB mouse plugged in and ran the add hardware
wizard and it said no new hardware.
I did unplug the PS2 mouse for every other test on the USB mouse and did
reboot the machine. It will not detect any mouse on a USB port.

You can run lots of mice at the same time, just so long as you only have a
hand on only one...they tend to fight each other...move one left and the
other right and the pointer stays still. I've had six mice at once...just an
experiment to see if it was possible.

Maybe you can try deleting the USB port in Device Manager?

Other random thoughts...boot to the Last Known Good config...try a restore
point from when the mouse worked...Is there a driver that can be deleted?

-John O

 

[Eric]

Scratch that, we checked the manual for the PC. It says the power supply
fan on the back of the tower is supposed to turn on and off by itself, that
it doesn't need to run constantly...

 

[Eric]

It appears we found the problem. In some more testing to get the mouse to
work, a reboot did not work. Now booting up the PC goes to the menu of Safe
Mode, Last Known Good, etc. where any option I try just hangs.
I tried booting to the Windows XP Home setup CD and setup won't load. Every
time I get a different error.
I am assuming the hard drive is corrupted and PC is unrecoverable.

 

[Eric]

It seems we figured out what the problem is. Since we created this other
problem and fixed it, I figure the weird problem with the USB mice must be
related to the other weird problem.
I did get the PC to boot to Windows after putting in different RAM chips.
We thought that meant a problem with the RAM but it seems more likely a
problem with the motherboard. The different RAM chips were 256MB each. The
original chips were 1 GB each. I tried putting the original chips back in
one at a time and it booted fine, but it wouldn't boot with both, so the MB
must suddenly not like more than 1 GB RAM anymore. I recommended
reinstalling Windows when they get a chance, and if the USB mouse problem
doesn't fix itself, to replace the MB.