From: "Geo." 

pull the cmos battery, wait an hour, put battery back in.

Geo. (look for bad capacitors too)

"Frank Haber"  wrote in message
news:41192ca4{at}w3.nls.net...
> Here's a loverly one.
>
> Knowledgable friend lost both kb and mouse on one of his old machines.  He
> couldn't get to base one, so I said, "Sure, bring it over." 
Now I have egg
on
> my face, too.
>
> It's a junker Cel466 Dell desktop, Intel 810 integrated video, 256MB, XP
> Home - a relative's machine.  The kb and mouse PS/2 checked out fine at the
> DOS level with two diags.  But he was right - under XP, no kb, and the mouse
> dies when you hit the first key.  The kb shows the yellow bang
("cannot load
> driver, code 39)
>
> o delete both drivers, detect, reinstall - no joy.
> o safe mode delete no joy.
> o attach Chicony USB kb, detected properly, no joy!  Same errmsg!
> o Do same with several combos of various mice, kbs, and safe mode.  Joyless.
> o Restore to last week, before he installed a new Kingston USB mouse, no joy.
> There's no evidence of anything Kingston on the machine.
> o Popped in the retail XP Home disk, do overlay install. Kb fails at the
> serial number entry point, 34 minutes to go, the infamous PCI/hwcompat
"point
> of horror."  It's an upgrade install over 98, what do I expect.
> o Slap in test HD, everything comes up roses.
>
> Now the better part of valor is obviously to reformat, or throw the machine
> out, which will happen.  I'm curious, though. Anybody hit anything like this
> with the critical system drivers before?
>
> --
>
> -Frank
>

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