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Solve : XP's locked me out!?

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Hi folks,

I have an Acer Aspire with AMD Athlon processor with XP Home INSTALLED by OEM - no disks.
The computer boots up normally until I get to the log-in page. At this stage the keyboard and mouse are
working normally. When you try to enter a user password, however, the keyboard freezes and the mouse refuses to move the cursor. Ctrl+Alt+Del fails to close down the machine.
I found by experiment that if I use the USB keyboard and mouse from another machine then I can log-in and use the computer, apparently as normal. I've tried "System restore" to no avail. I've tried booting up in safe mode, that has the same freezing effect on keyboard and mouse. I've tried to reconfigure to a previous good setting, no effect.
This all started during an update of XP from Microsoft. I downloaded the files OK and was in the process
of installing them when AVG, (free), interrupted with a virus warning. I told it to "heal" and everything
carried as normal. Only after the re-start of the computer did the fault appear. Maybe I should have
instructed AVG to wait before dealing with the virus?

*** I suspect I might have to buy my own copy of XP and install that instead, please, any ideas? ***

I've tried these already;

Scanned with Ad-aware(6.181) - 15 tracking cookies/data miners quarentined
Scanned with Spybot - clear
Scanned REGISTRY with TweakNow reg cleaner - 7 "problems" found and fixed
No virus or malware apparent.
Used MS Disk Cleanup and Scandisk and Chkdsk /r
Ran "sfc /scannow" - no effect

To my (dangerous!) ignorant mind, it seems that the PS/2 port has been affected, as this USB
keyboard/mouse works fine on the Acer and the original PS/2 keyboard/mouse works fine on the USB
machine.
Any help would be gatefully received,
Thank you in advance.
Eddie  Check that you are plugging the mouse & keyboard into the right holes.  Contact Acer about the possibility of getting a copy of the operating system you paid for as well.Remove the drivers installed for any mice or keyboards. Quote

Check that you are plugging the mouse & keyboard into the right holes.  

Hi Fed,

I may be a novice in these things but I sure can't think of any hardware or software fault that can remove PS/2 plugs and INSERT them into the wrong sockets whilst the computer is running.

Thanks for your reply,

Eddie
Quote
Remove the drivers installed for any mice or keyboards.

Hi Roofvogel,

Thanks for your suggestion, I looked in "Device Manager" and asked Windows to update the drivers but it says that the ones I've got don't need UPDATING. Have you any idea how else can I replace them?

Thanks for your time,

Eddie
Removing them from the list should allow Windows to redetect the drivers.

Quote
Check that you are plugging the mouse & keyboard into the right holes.
Are you the only person with access to this computer?
Defective women or children can easily cause this to happen. Quote
Defective women or children can easily cause this to happen.

  Quote
Removing them from the list should allow Windows to redetect the drivers.


Hello again Roofvogel,

I'm sorry for the delay in replying to you, here's what I've tried;

In "Device Manager" I've tried to re-install the keyboard and mouse drivers but XP tells me that no improvements to the drivers can be found. However, rightly or wrongly, I suspect the drivers of either the keyboard or the PS/2 port itself. I've tried to replace the ones in "System32" with new ones from a borrowed system disk but it would seem that when the machine boots up, it reloads the original drivers from another folder somewhere else. My knowledge of XP, or any other operating system for that matter, has long since run out. I'm now at the stage of contemplating buying a USB keyboard and mouse for the machine and hoping nothing else has been affected.
Thanks for all your time so far,

Eddie

Quote
This all started during an update of XP from Microsoft. I downloaded the files OK and was in the process  
of installing them when AVG, (free), interrupted with a virus warning. I told it to "heal" and everything  
carried as normal. Only after the re-start of the computer did the fault appear. Maybe I should have  
instructed AVG to wait before dealing with the virus?
Have you tried removing the Msoft update then downloading & installing it again? Quote
Quote
This all started during an update of XP from Microsoft. I downloaded the files OK and was in the process  
of installing them when AVG, (free), interrupted with a virus warning. I told it to "heal" and everything  
carried as normal. Only after the re-start of the computer did the fault appear. Maybe I should have  
instructed AVG to wait before dealing with the virus?
Have you tried removing the Msoft update then downloading & installing it again?

Hello Fed,

This fault occured about a week before Christmas. I'm afraid I've no idea which MS update it was and even if I did know it's identity, I honestly wouldn't know where to look for it.

Eddie
Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove programs. Quote
Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove programs.

Add/Remove programs does not mention any updates.

Eddie
HMMM, my W2K shows about 20 hotfixes, but it doesn't show SP4?
Perhaps it's worth using usb mouse & keyboard then going back to windows update.
This is a STRANGE one.


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