Windows XP Mouse and Keyboard problem

[Philippe]

An artist friend has Windows XP. Her mouse and keyboard are suddenly not working. I'm going to go in and take a look early tomorrow afternoon to see what I can do. Those who know me will know how funny that is, but this is an emergency (for her and for me).

I have no idea what is wrong with her computer. It will probably prove to be something other than what was described to me. I am hoping that it is something simple like a corrupted driver or two. In which case I'll reinstall from wherever I can find them.

My problem, however, is that I've never actually used a computer with Windows XP before, so I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm assuming that like most computer-related issues it is fairly self-explanatory, but I would really appreciate any pointers anyone could give to doing this in XP as opposed to 2000.

And just in case the problem can't be solved by reinstalling drivers, I would love to hear what other things (besides loose wiring or faulty connections) would cause a mouse and a keyboard not to work.

I'm told that her computer is a relatively late model Dell.

And assuming that I succeed in fixing the problem and give her computer a tune-up (defrag, virus scan, memory tweak), any idea what I should charge?

I'd love to say that this is CMBO- and CMBB- related. It is, in a way, but only in the sense that it will move me a lot closer towards being able to play them by PBEM again someday.

[junk2drive]

There is nothing wrong with her computer. It's just a booty call.

Start playing CM on her computer and she will stop bothering you.

[Schrullenhaft]

How are the keyboard and mouse hooked up to her computer ? The older (and most common) ports are PS/2 (circular connectors with six metal pins and a plastic "guide" in the middle) and newer connectors are USB. If they're PS/2 then checking the physical connection itself is the only thing I could guess to check. The connectors themselves may be damaged (on the motherboard) or the cables from the respective device may be damaged (smashed against a wall too tightly ?).

For USB there is a potential for conflicts from other USB devices, which should be rare, but it is a possibility.

Does she see any sort of error before booting into Windows ? If she does, then it suggests a connectivity problem. If the cables are fit snugly and don't show any damage/bent pins, then another device (keyboard and/or mouse) may be needed for testing and/or replacement of the device.

It's possible that there may be driver problems, but that should be pretty rare (unless the keyboard and mouse have unique drivers that offer several options and didn't come with Windows XP itself). Unfortunately if both devices are non-functioning (for whatever reason), it becomes impossible to do anything in Windows (or almost any OS for that matter) since there is no way to 'input' anything. The only other recourse is a 'remote connection' to the computer, if that option is enabled already (it usually is by default).

[Philippe]

As a postscript, I managed to get most of the problems to clear up, but am still scratching my head over why it worked.

My friend is a lefty. She had the mouse configured in reverse. As long as the mouse was configured in reverse nothing was working right. I, however, can't work with a left-configured mouse, so early on I switched it back. As soon as I did, everything worked fine. When I switched it back to left configuration everything started to misbehave again. Switched back to right hand configuration everything worked. I'm assuming that she probably needs a new mouse and possibly a new mouse driver. Either that, or she became right-handed overnight and didn't notice.

And I did find a hopelessly bent pin on one of her monitors, so the hardware had taken a beating.