PC Won't Recognize Mouse

[prolific]

Built my father a PC back in 2006 or so, it's rather dated in a sense but still runs fine and definitely is more than what he needs for his day-to-day use.

My problem is this: the mouse does not move around and isn't even recognized anymore. I've heard that this is more than likely due to a dead/unresponsive motherboard or something along those lines. I've unplugged the mouse and plugged it into another computer and it works fine - so it's not the mouse.

Any resolutions here or is the motherboard truly on the way out? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mu33rto]

Insert any other usb device to see if the computer read it first.. That way you can see if its just a driver problem or the usb ports. You can open the device manager "devmgmt.msc" to see if the usb is been read and see if there any conflicts. Also go into the bios and load default settings just in case any one changed and settings around. Upgrading bios firmware to the lasted version. You can also try an usb to ps/2 converter if all fails.

 

[prolific]

Tried the USB to PS/2 converter which I had on hand, still no go.

I'll try your other advice, any other suggestions in the mean time however?

 

[Mu33rto]

Did you try to see if any other usb device will read? Try uninstalling USB Human Interface Device and HID-compliant mouse in device manager.Plug the mouse and restart the computer... See if that works.. You can also try booting into a live linux distro like ubuntu, mint, Fendora and run it off either a usb drive or a burnt CD. Dont install just run the live CD. See you linux reads any PS2,USB ports.. If you don't like linux than bartpe might be youre flavor. It could be some drivers are corrupted by a virus or other things. So if youre able to use the mouse with either linux or bartpe just do a fresh install of the OS.. Finally if nothing works test to see if the PCI slots work if they do.. Just buy a USB pci card to be able to add usb devices.

 

[prolific]

To be honest, I'm not crazy computer savy so dealing with Linux is something I'm not very comfortable with.

I tried plugging in different mice as well as an external harddrive.. nothing.

I suppose if worse comes to worse, is there a way to transfer 4-5GBs worth of stuff off of this harddrive onto another PC's wirelessly or someway? That's his main concern at the moment.

 

[Mu33rto]

Those are live linux distro you don't have to install it or anything like that..If those PC have wireless you can create an ad-hoc network without needing a router to connect the two. If one doesn't have wireless and you have a router then you can network the two together. If you don't have a router you can connect the two with a crossover cable. What OS are you running on both PC?

 

[prolific]

I'd use my laptop as one location (has wireless, Windows 7) and there's obviously by father's PC with a busted USB/mouse issue that is not wireless and is running Windows XP. The hard part here is going to be setting up something without a mouse I suppose.

 

[Mu33rto]

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-xp/how-to-setup-remote-desktop-on-windows-xp/ You can setupp remote desktop so you can use the mouse of youre win7 to control windows xp