Strange hardware conflict?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited December 2005 in Hardware
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?

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    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. :)
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    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.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    Plug the eMachines keyboard into another computer and see if you get the same business.
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited December 2005
    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.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    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?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    It sounds to me like they just have the ports arranged differently on the MB.
Sign In or Register to comment.