Hi Groomerdriver, and everyone else!
Great to see a positive outcome occurred while I was asleep. Sounds like (in order of probability).
b[/b] You’ve got a wireless USB mouse adapter that’s become “persona non grata” to your motherboard. This can cause the boot process to be halted because the BIOS can’t properly identify the faulty USB device “doodad” and tries to boot off it anyway.
b[/b] Your PCI IDE adapter was causing a similar problem.
b[/b] <<WARNING - EXPLICIT TECHNICAL CONTENT>> Your “Mass storage controller” (I’m guessing this is your PCI IDE adapter), “Network controller” (NIC) and one “Serial Bus Controller” (could be a PCI modem) all share one processor interrupt (IRQ) 9. This is not a problem if the motherboard BIOS supports IRQ sharing but if not, it could be that detection of one of the three devices has suddenly changed to 9 and is causing conflict.
The issue is “fixed”, but something is still weird!
- Plugged in a PS2 mouse…not the wireless mouse doodad (plug-in thingy).
- I replugged in the USB port cable to the motherboard — everything worked fine (I didn’t check to see if the ports are working though)
- I plugged the IDE card into a different PCI slot…plugged in the 2nd HD and everything worked fine
The dang this runs just like before!!! Again, I haven’t tried using a USB port yet.
I plugged in the wireless mouse doodad into our other PC and the doodad isn’t showing a power light, and the mouse doesn’t work.
Quick FYI – The modem card was removed a long time ago.
Is this PC trying to give me advance warning of an impending crash, or did the wireless mouse doodad going bad cause the problem? I don’t want to buy another tower if I don’t have to but…
To me that would be a clue that perhaps the USB mouse doodad is a USB2 device and the USB port you are connecting to is USB1.1 (non-powered). USB2 can provide power to those USB2 devices that require it. Or that the USB mouse doodad is on its way out.
So you will need to check what the USB ports are on your system, has the light ever worked on the USB mouse doodad ?
You like my technical jargon now don’tcha!!! Doodad! LOL!!!
You nailed it…the USB ports in the PC are 1.1’s…not sure what the Doodad is compatable to…it’s a Microsoft laptop wireless mouse. Yes, the light did work when plugged into the 1.1 port, but now when I try to plug it into the other PC with a 2.0 port, it doesn’t light up or work.
I think the Doodad is shot myself. I’m going to check and see how much a new Doodad is…assuming I can get a new one from Microsoft.
A MS anything is likely to command a premium price be more expensive than the regular wireless mice doodads, I have an MS wireless optical mouse 1000 and that cost £19.95, which as about £10 cheaper than the normal price. I got mine from a Supermarket ‘Tesco’ and that was probably why it was cheaper.
It is a standard sized mouse not a notebook one, but I you go for something from Genius or one of the other named brands it is likely to be a little cheaper.
Before you “rush” out to buy a new USB wireless mouse, check the USB ports with a flash memory drive or some other USB device requiring 5v power.
Both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 standards require 5 volt supply at up to 1/2 an amp per device (It’s USB 1.0 slots that may or may not be powered). I know you’ve tried the “doodad” in another PC and it didn’t work there either but there’s still a chance that the on-board USB might be faulty.
On the other hand, if you do go Microsoft, they have combo wireless “mouses”. i.e USB with PS/2 adapter.