Hi,

I'm currently trying to fix up a computer for a friend that's running Windows 98. He claims that everything was working up until last Thursday when we had a thunderstorm (yes, his comp was surge protected). When booting up the system all of the tests pass and windows loads normally. However, when the login screen comes up (where it says "press ctrl/alt/delete to begin"), neither the keyboard or the mouse works.

No, it isn't the keyboard or the mouse because they keyboard and mouse that seem to be not working are the same keyboard/mouse I used to navigate to your site and post this message. There are 0 error messages, no beeps, the only thing I noticed is that once everything is detected/initialized (yes the keyboard and mouse are both detected), the Caps/Num/Scroll lock keys all continuously flash in unison (about once every second). The keyboard does work on the computer, because I can get into the BIOS and view all of the settings with the comp, just once it boots up that's it, no more keyboard.

Any ideas as to what is happening here? It is an older PC, did it just die?

Originally Posted by stanmosha

Ok well lucky for others I AM a hardware guy. next time before you reinstall windows, or for anyone else experiancing this steady blinking of all lights on the keyboard and the keyboard not working this is what you do.
1) stand (or kneel) behind the computer.
2) looking at the back of the computer take your right hand and grab on the the cable closer to the right pannel of the case.
3) take your left hand and grab the cable toward the left pannel of the case.
4) pull both cables out but do not release them from your grip, do not lay them on the floor, or in anyway combine them into a single hand.
5) cross your arms over each other and plug the one in your right hand into the socket closer to the left pannel and the cable in you left hand into the socket closer to the right pannel of the case and PRESTO!

Conclusion: you had the keyboard pluged into the mouse socket and vice-versa... happens alot when cables are not color coded or when using ps/2 extensions. excuse my sarcasim i couldn't help myself LOL to be fair Ive done it too.. and it took me several hours to figure it out LOL