terrible mouse problem

[dnathe4th]

Too bad this is my first post here, and it's not even audio-video related. But I don't know where else to ask :-(


Just the other day I started having problems with my mouse and keyboard. Both are PS/2, I'm on a windows xp system. The mouse will be fine for a few minutes after I boot or restart, but then it'll completely stop working. A USB mouse, however, works just fine. Similarly, the PS/2 keyboard works fine for a while, but eventually it freezes up, or pauses about 2 seconds before putting a character on the screen.
There have been no software or hardware updates (i might have updated something from windows....), and there are no avaliable driver updates. I think device manager reports everything to be in working order.

And guesses? I don't really know how to search google for help, without being too general and getting a swamp of results. Thanks

[setarip_old]

Hi!

1) Have you tried unplugging and replugging your mouse and keyboard?

2) You might want to open up your computer and clean out all dust bunnies and accumulated "stuff"

[jeffy]

I have personally seen this exactly once in my life. The PS/2 ports went bad and there was nothing you could do except have the motherboard repaired, so they ended up using USB peripherals that didn't exhibit this issue. The weird thing was the ports seemed to be working for a really short time, but then started doing quirks like those described by dnathe4th above, freezing and stuff like that...

Both peripherals were wired ones and the issue could be clearly seen even in BIOS. No reformatting, replugging or reinstalling the OS did help.

[dnathe4th]

jeffy, thats what I was afraid of. I'll have to get some usb peripherals to use instead. I'd rather not replace the whole motherboard, since that seems to be the only real fix.
I wonder why this happens at all. Could they parts be bad? the whole box is a year and a half old....

Thanks a lot

[mitsubishi]

Do you have a Live CD or something (even sitting in BIOS maybe).

When ever I encounter a problem like this, I stick in a Linux Live disc to ascertain whether it is a hardware or software problem before messing around for hours with windows settings.