Win2k Boot or Reboot-no mouse or keyboard

Please note anyone reading this: we have already tried MS Knowledge Base solutions. None of them work. So do not point to that as a solution.

The Problem
I ran into a problem I have never seen before while helping a friend fix some things on a Micron PC 800 Mhz PIII running Windows 2K. The problem has apparently been on his PC for some time now since he changed it to Win2K from Win98se. He did a total clean install to Win2K (i.e., re-partitioned and formatted using Win2K boot CD). After this he noticed everytime he restarted his PC or booted up from scratch, he would have no mouse or keyboard control when it got to the Win2K login screen. At this point the only thing he can do is a power cycle or hit the system reset button. He happened upon a work around that he has been living with. On bootup enter into the BIOS, change nothing. Just enter it and escape to restart the PC again. Now the mouse and keyboard work fine. This work around works every single time and is necessary every time the PC is restarted.

I have checked thru Microsofts Knowledge Base and the only related article was Knowledge Base #246043 which says:

"No Mouse or Keyboard Response at Logon Prompt After Installing Iomegaware"

He does have a built in 250Mb Zip drive and Iomegaware but had already upgraded to the version recommended in the article. It did not help. None of the other information in this article or other articles has helped either.

Anyone ever seen any problem like this? I have changed at least a dozen PCs (but none like my friends Micron) to Win2K from Win98se and never had a problem like this one.

 

No! I did not mean to sound like I was touchy. It's just that quite often suggestions seem to be written without reading the whole problem and point you to things that have already been tried and mentioned in the original post. And yes, for this particular problem I have tried everything in the KB that could possibly be related. None worked. I do agree that sometime the KB is extremely useful. Just not in this case or several other problems I have had.

The mouse & keyboard are standard PS/2 interfaces.

 

Yes it was a totally clean install and I was wondering if it was a BIOS related issue myself. Like some kind of incompatibility with Win2K. Other than this startup issue (which I use the enter/exit BIOS workaround to get past), Win2K runs just fine.

I don't know if Micron PC would still answer questions about this PC (it is about 4 yrs old) and also it came with Win98se not Win2K.

Maybe I should just try changing the PC to WinXP!

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll bring a small (6 Gb) spare disk drive over to my friends and try this out. He has quite a bit of stuff loaded on the PC right now and cannot afford to much down time. Using a test hard disk will avoid making him go thru a total reinstall for nothing. That is if it did not work. Hope it does!