mouse, keyboard, D:\ not found

[zybro77]

If you have a moment, will you please answer a question for me?

If the answer to this question is already somewhere on your site, please forgive me for not finding it.

I have a boot problem with my WinXP machine:

From a powered off state, the machine will not find the mouse and keyboard. I must reset the computer at any time after power on before the mouse and keyboard are found.

Additionally, after some soft reboots, the machine will not see my 2nd hard drive.

That puts me in a catch 22 of sorts. I can power off then power on and trust that my 2nd hard drive will be found but I will have no mouse/keyboard to use the drive(s). I can reset the machine during or after the power on boot to enable my mouse/keyboard but risk the possibility of losing sight of the 2nd hard drive. Or I can ignore the problem and leave the machine powered on constantly (not a preferred option).

Have you ever seen/heard of anything like this before? Any thoughts, suggestions?

*IMPORTANT* -- Also, do you know if there is anything similar to the good 'ole autoexec.bat file that allowed users to run commands before Windows loads? Or what are the boot files for Windows these days? There must be a way to control the boot process...?

I would like to add a small script to test the availability of the mouse/keyboard/D: drive prior to Windows XP loading.

I tried this in autoexec.bat (failed, obviously -- Win XP ignores autoexec.bat...)

echo off
echo Keyboard test...
pause

The goal is simply to test the functionality of the keyboard. If the keyboard is found, pressing any key will continue the boot process. If the keyboard is not found, I simply press the reset button on my computer to try again... Of course this does not work but is there any way to do something like this ???

This has been driving my crazy for a few months now. I hope I am not out of line asking you this question. If you don't have time or don't know the answer, do you know anywhere else that may help with this?

Thanks for making such a great site!

 

[caseyc]

Windows XP still recognizes autoexec.bat statements if they are environment setting commands (ie: set). For setting up the emulated DOS environment, you'd use the autoexec.nt, making sure that you place it directly in the root folder (C:\). If it's not seeing it there, something's wrong.

Also, in regards to your random issues of the mouse/keyboard/second hard drive not working - that spells trouble. Loose cables, possibly faulty controllers could be the cause however it's hard to say.

Typically, if your keyboard is not found your PC will not boot because the BIOS requires it. If this PC is more than 8 or 9 years old I could understand, however if it's a fairly new PC you have some serious problems with it.

 

[zybro77]

Thanks so much for your time and effort!

I checked, double checked, and rechecked the BIOS.

Fumbled around with some other dead ends.

Then finally just tried a USB keyboard instead of the PS/2 keyboard. The USB works - Maybe I have a bad PS/2 port.

Now everything is A-Ok.

Thanks!