Keyboard Fails and System Soon Follows

This has happened twice. Mouse and keyboard become erratic and then begin
to fail altogether (doesn't matter what keyboard or mouse I use . . . have
tried several). I reboot and they seem to work for a bit then become
non-responsive again (esp. keyboard). Then total system failure follows.
System will boot until it attempts to load OS at which point it says a
critical system file is missing and must be replaced (some sort of weird
file corruption?).



I'm thinking this is some sort of mobo problem. When it first happened, I
yanked out the motherboard, upgraded my main system and tossed the old mobo
into a second system with a different hard drive, etc, and the same thing
happened after about a month of working fine. So it's not a hard drive
problem.



Any clues?





System Specs:



Epox 8K5A-3+ (latest BIOS)

AMD 2200+

512MB Stick 2700 Corsair RAM

Windows XP Pro SP1 (all updates current)







Thanks!

"Jim Milner" <> wrote in message
news:...
> This has happened twice. Mouse and keyboard become erratic and then begin
> to fail altogether (doesn't matter what keyboard or mouse I use . . . have
> tried several). I reboot and they seem to work for a bit then become
> non-responsive again (esp. keyboard). Then total system failure follows.
> System will boot until it attempts to load OS at which point it says a
> critical system file is missing and must be replaced (some sort of weird
> file corruption?).


Are your input devices USB?

no, but i can use a usb mouse just fine. the devices in question are both
ps/2

"Derek Wildstar" <> wrote in message
news:T6%gb.706669$YN5.575815@sccrnsc01...
>
> "Jim Milner" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > This has happened twice. Mouse and keyboard become erratic and then
begin
> > to fail altogether (doesn't matter what keyboard or mouse I use . . .
have
> > tried several). I reboot and they seem to work for a bit then become
> > non-responsive again (esp. keyboard). Then total system failure
follows.
> > System will boot until it attempts to load OS at which point it says a
> > critical system file is missing and must be replaced (some sort of weird
> > file corruption?).
>
>
> Are your input devices USB?
>
>

"Jim Milner" <> wrote in message
news:...

> no, but i can use a usb mouse just fine. the devices in question are both
> ps/2

I assume that using a USB Keyboard and Mouse would not solve your problem?
Granted, the ports might be borked, sounds like a power surge, but hardware
doesn't always fatally fail, only enough to break something you aren't using
anyway.

I have had a bit of this - you do not say what software or o/s you are
using. In my case it is software / driver related.

I have had one combination on my home network that did this regularly -
sometimes at least once a day. It depended on what software I was using on
the day. My fix was to use that set of hardware for my Linux machine - not a
moment's problem now. I am using a an older MSI mobo with WinME and stuff of
that generation and no more problems there either. An XP Pro machine runs
only current stuff and is OK most of the time. An old Win98 machine runs
real old stuff and never gives a moment's trouble. It is on the web so has a
fairly up to date virus scanner (Norton 2001).

I am finding increasingly with Windows systems, try to keep all your
hardware and software of the same generation. Do not update unless you have
a problem and don't accept all MS updates either; security is an issue if
you use that machine on the web. If it is working reliably, anything you do
is more likely to break it than improve things.
John

"Jim Milner" <> wrote in message
news:...
| This has happened twice. Mouse and keyboard become erratic and then begin
| to fail altogether (doesn't matter what keyboard or mouse I use . . . have
| tried several). I reboot and they seem to work for a bit then become
| non-responsive again (esp. keyboard). Then total system failure follows.
| System will boot until it attempts to load OS at which point it says a
| critical system file is missing and must be replaced (some sort of weird
| file corruption?).
|
|
|
| I'm thinking this is some sort of mobo problem. When it first happened, I
| yanked out the motherboard, upgraded my main system and tossed the old
mobo
| into a second system with a different hard drive, etc, and the same thing
| happened after about a month of working fine. So it's not a hard drive
| problem.
|
|
|
| Any clues?
|
|
|
|
|
| System Specs:
|
|
|
| Epox 8K5A-3+ (latest BIOS)
|
| AMD 2200+
|
| 512MB Stick 2700 Corsair RAM
|
| Windows XP Pro SP1 (all updates current)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Thanks!
|
|