Thank you ! Well, the mouse and keyboard are not USB - just regular
round green and purple plugs. From your responses it seems to me that
even though the problem started with a USB port, it is possible that a
fuse blew and disrupted power which is common to both USB ports and
mouse and keyboard. Is this a fair analysis ?

Ron(UK) wrote:
moonlite wrote:
I have a computer that was custom built at a computer show a few years
ago and it worked very nicely until lately. My son mistakenly tried
inserting the speaker plug into one of the USB ports on the back.
Suddenly I lost functionality in both keyboard and mouse, so I am
unable to communicate with the computer. The lights on the keyboard do
not light up when I turn the computer on. I replaced keyboard and mouse
without success. The computer still turns on normally and I hate to
just throw it if this problem can be solved. I'm running Windows XP.
Any computer geniuses out there ? Thank you for any help or tips you
can give !


Without knowing the make and model of the motherboard it`s difficult to
give specific advice, but my guess would be that there`s a micro fuse
somewhere on the motherboard which has blown due to a short on the usb
5v rail. Probably fixable if you can locate it.

Ron(UK)