Mouse won’t work 1

[LilBob]

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 desktop running XP Home SP3 that a client gave me to check out. PC would not boot. I quickly determined the power supply was gone. I had an old 200 watt power supply that worked & installed it to see if there were any additional problems. Not surprisingly, there was 1 problem. The mouse wouldn’t work. I tried 2 track balls & 2 optical to no avail (tried all USB ports). I called my client & was told that her mouse stopped working too before it stopped booting up. She also mentioned when asked for more info that she booted in something other than normal mode but she wasn’t sure what. BIOS setup displays mouse on & optical mouse shows power going to it. Booting in Safe mode is same. Also tried booting in ‘last good configuration' & got same results, no mouse movement.
I tried adding 1 more stick of RAM (also 256MB). Booting up with Norton's recovery disc enabled mouse. I scanned for viruses 1st (nothing found). I ran chkdsk and set it to auto fix file system errors & find & correct bad sectors. After chkdsk was complete, I got the following message:

'Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50'.

Event log showed previous keyboard errors & recognized the additional RAM. Mouse works (cursor moves) but after I exit from Norton & reboot, mouse stops reacting. Tried running WD’s Data Lifeguard Tools also. Mouse would react but it looked like I was a drunk suffering from DT’s the way it moved. I hate to do a repair install if not necessary as that means reloading all SP updates; easy but time consuming.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, LilBob

 

[linney]

Some other things to try if you like, and if they are possible, before you do the recommended Format and clean install.

Use the Recovery Console to replace the Boot.ini file with Boot.bak or get a Boot.ini file that doesn't have XP Setup as the Default Operating System. This will the stop the Boot-Setup loop. (These are System and Hidden files).

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q289/0/22.asp

See instructions at the end of this article.

316417 - "Setup Cannot Upgrade Some Settings" Error Message When You Reinstall Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316417&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

xp setup
thread779-576242

How do you stop an unwanted repair of XP?
thread779-746800

 

[LilBob]

Hi linney,
My apologies for not replying sooner but had to have my knee operated on. Prior to that, after exhausting all other avenues, as well as myself, I finally reformatted the HD & did a clean install. All was working fine and the client was happy.
As usual, you've been a fountain of information & I learned much from you. Keep up the good work! OH! In case you were wondering, the op was successful & I may be up & walking, without a cast, by or shortly after Thanksgiving.

Thanks again, LilBob

 

[linney]

All the best with your health, and thanks for the kind comments and feedback.