Strange hardware conflict?

[Tim]

Today I started getting a computer system ready for sale. It was built on an Abit ST6 motherboard, P3 1 Ghz, 320 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive, and Windows XP Home and has been an excellent running computer for the 3 months I've had it. I've burned CDs with it, gone on the internet, and used it to test hardware from other computers. Never a problem.

I had it running (folding) by itself in the living room, plugged into the wall with no mouse, keyboard, or monitor. I needed to burn a CD tonight, so I plugged in a mouse, keyboard, and monitor. The first of each that were nearby.

All of a sudden, it's screwing up. Hitting the RESTART button took forever, when I'd click on My Computer, D (hard drive), Program Files, Common Files to check on various programs, it would highlight extra icons and bring up things I never asked for. It would pop up warnings saying I was about to open 20 programs at once. Then when I finally did get it back to the desktop screen, it would keep several icons highlighted.

Great. I just made a deal to sell this thing for $200 tomorrow morning and NOW it starts screwing up on me! :banghead:

So I started doing a repair install of XP, and on the black screen where I select which drive to repair, I'd press the 1, and it would type a "!" instead. Several times.

So I unplugged the Emachines keyboard and plugged in another old one that was sitting nearby and restarted the computer.

Now it works great again.

WTF?

[profdlp]

Was the caps lock key on on the other keyboard? Even if it wasn't, it sounds like it's gone a little whacko on you.

At least it's about the cheapest thing there is to replace. :)

[Tim]

The caps lock was not on, but even if it is, I have to use SHIFT to get the special characters on the number keys. At least when using this 4 year old Dell keyboard.

[profdlp]

Plug the eMachines keyboard into another computer and see if you get the same business.

[deicist]

Yeah, the original keyboard is borked, it happens sometimes especially after you've just unplugged / plugged it in. Maybe the pins have been bent (if it's a USB keyboard) or the cable has been damaged or something. Either way it's cheap enough to bin it and get another.

[Tim]

Another strange problem.

I just got done fixing an IBM aptiva 2270. It worked fine at the person's house. I brought it home, and I went through 4 keyboards (GOOD ones), and 3 mouses trying to get this miserable POS to work.

I finally found that only one keyboard and mouse would work, and even to make that happen, I had to plug the PS/2 keyboard into the mouse plug, and plug the PS/2 mouse into the keyboard plug.

WTF can this be?

[profdlp]

It sounds to me like they just have the ports arranged differently on the MB.