Your mouse and keyboard, are they usb?
You should take note when you have one of the 2 plugged in and it works which port it is plugged into that will tell you which usb port is functioning.
If you take a good look at a usb port you will notice that it has an internal structure, that internal structure can break or crack rendering the port useless, I know this from personal experience.
I think what you need to try is use a different usb port whether it's from an expansion card, a usb hub or whatever, just another port.
I was afraid that was going to be the diagnosis--a new outlet in the tower.
Well, I guess at 7:00 in the morning, I'll be heading to the big city.
Considering everything, what you say makes sense, all of it. Thanks!
I hope it works for you and if it does look at the bright side, if your stuff was all ps2 you'd have to either replace the motherboard or convert everything over to usb
I'll post what happens, tomorrow.
All else works fine; it must just be the keyboard-mouse connections where they're clipped into the tower.
Stupid question here Frank, you only have two USB ports ?
.
Hey now, this is probably an old computer; I dunno, and a screen capture of its specifications is available upon request, if one tells me where to find it.
As far as I can tell, there's four of them leading into the unit, two with prongs in there, and two without prongs.
The mouse and the keyboard are inserted into the ones without prongs.
<<<not a computer whiz, sorry.
It doesn't matter which usb port you plug your devices into.
The can possibly find usb ports on the back of the tower, on the front of the tower under a little door, on the monitor.
Whoa.
Wait.
What?
I just looked; there's four on the front. Two are USB, two are round.
I never paid attention because I didn't know what they were for.
Before I even try, would it be worth my while to see if those would work?
Absolutely!
Good deal Coach, I'm glad we could help.
I'll still have to take the tower to the big city for a new ports, but at least I won't have to do it tomorrow.
<<<<because of distances, likes to have more than just one reason to go to the big city, and so this can wait for a second and third reason.
Think about getting a usb hub instead.
<<<has no idea what a USB hub is, but will nadin it.
However, since this is an old computer, I'm reluctant to put lots of dough into it. When I take it in, I'll ask. The guys at connectingpoint have never done me wrong in twelve years I've been going there.
USB hubs are cheap and will turn 1 usb port on you computer into 4 or 8 or whatever.
I use an old micro 4 port hub to run my printer, headphones and laptop cooler.
I think I might have spent 10 bucks max.
I hadn't nadined it yet; I had the impression it might be some piece of big equipment.
But I'll keep you up to date.
Many computer manufacturers do not clearly mark USB port versions. Use the Device Manager to determine if your computer has USB 1.1, 2.0, or 3.0 ports:
Open the Device Manager.
In the Device Manager window, click the + (plus sign) next to Universal Serial Bus controllers. You will see a list of the USB ports installed on your computer.
If your USB port name contains "Universal Host", your port is version 1.1.
If the port name contains both "Universal Host" and "Enhanced Host", your port is version 2.0.
If the port name contains "USB 3.0", your port is version 3.0.
I remember when USB was released, one of the specifications is that a single USB controller can address 127 different devices.
One of those interesting facts that will probably never be utilized.
But there is a limit on how many can be piggybacked I believe.You're limited by the number of physical connections that can be made but the controller itself will handle 127 individual devices. I think SCSI is the same way.
You're limited by the number of physical connections that can be made but the controller itself will handle 127 individual devices. I think SCSI is the same way.
I thought there was a smaller limit on how many USB devices could be connected serially.Oh, that's different.
This is the USB hub I picked up at Walmart for about 2-3 bucks. Plugs into one USB port in the back of the PC and gives four out. My USB ports are 2.0.(http://members.socket.net/~mcruzan/images/USB%20hub.jpg)
The guy didn't even run a diagnostics test on it; he opened the case, saw something, pointed it out to me, and said "no good," not worth repairing.
He told me what it was, but damn, I wasn't "grasping" very well at all.
There's three pins, posts, stakes, whatever, inside that have cone-type tops.
Or rather, they're supposed to be cone-type tops.
I told him to junk the computer.
I'm happy; I got the photographs yanked out of there.
Frank, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I really need to unload. Make an offer...
...and he'll get a couple of hundred on the parts.
Well, at least ya got something.......
Frank, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I really need to unload. Make an offer...
...and he'll get a couple of hundred on the parts.
Well, at least ya got something.......
(http://www.conservativecave.com/Smileys/default/hammer.gif)
The guy didn't even run a diagnostics test on it; he opened the case, saw something, pointed it out to me, and said "no good," not worth repairing.
There's three pins, posts, stakes, whatever, inside that have cone-type tops.
Or rather, they're supposed to be cone-type tops.
Over time, these cone-type tops flattened down.
What I'm saying is that it sounds to me like Frank "got took"..........or at a minimum could have done better with a second opinion.
That just doesn't sound right. I have absolutely no idea what kind of pin, inside a case that Frank couldn't open, has a cone type top that flattens out over time. I build my own PCs, bare bones from the case and power supply out, and I've never spent more than $500 for the components to put one together. Everything is off-the-shelf.
For my wife on the other hand, everything on the other side of the screen is pure magic.
Oh now, marv, sir, the guy's a good guy. I've been dealing with him for 12 years now.The only thing that comes to mind with the three pins is that computers have jumpers in them that you can use to clear the CMOS. The CMOS stores the current con figuration of the computer and if the computer acts up then one can use these pins to clear the problem by taking what looks like a little plastic sleeve and moving it from the two pins up to the pin on top using the middle pin and then reversing it back to the original position. This clears the memory and set the computer back to default. Earlier I had mentioned that perhaps the problem was that when the keyboard plugs were changed , the plug (USB) was put in a card and not the main computer port and so the keyboard was not recognized. I have personal experience with this and once I plugged the keyboard in one of the original usb slots the keyboard was recognized.
He's highly reminiscent of a 1950s Popular Mechanics fan, and wears a plastic pocket protector on his shirt.
If the old computer was going to need a lot of work, I didn't care; it cost so little when I first got it, and I got so much use out of it, that if he'd charged me to dispose of it, I still would've come out ahead.
As for the three pins, stakes, stumps, posts, whatever, he showed me the ones on the old computer, and then opened another computer to show me how they're supposed to be. He told me their name, damn it, but I wasn't grasping it.
<<<gets tired of asking people to repeat themselves.