asus a8n-la hp ph-award bios wont let me alter or exit

[roximan]

One day my mouse stopped working. i went through the usual fixes no luck.Did a restore,then full xp install ,ran into chipset driver not on xp.found all driver installed them. still no mouse. i found a ! next to the serial port in the non pnp in the device manager. tried to start the driver and it said "their is no device present or is disabled". its a good mouse tested it. i figured the bios setting are preventing the port from connecting. i went to setup on start up and the phonex-award bios 3.11 displayed the first page but would not allow me to alter the setting or save or exit . Had to pull the plug. i did a successful bios upgrade from the manufacturer . No effect.
The machine -unfortunately - is a sr1820nx hp with a a8n-la motherboard. The ps2 mouse and keyboard jacks are soldered to the board(no wire or connector). i had a new replacement mother board and installed it . Same exact thing. Cant get in the bios. I can plug in a usb mouse and it works fine but then if i restart the system with the usb mouse in i get the following message-cant find
windows>system32\ntoskrnl.exe- but i checked, its their in c:windows \sys32. i replaced it with a copy from a working xp . same thing. i can only start the computer with no usb mouse plugged in. The ps2 mouse will not work.The machine is not to old and hp support is useless . They seem to know less about the computer than i do. Can anybody help???????:sigh::sigh::sigh:

[midwayusa]

I have the same issue and after reading your post tried some things. You stated that yours still did it with a replacement board. That led me to believe that it was due to something attached to the board. I unhooked all the front USB and Firewire stuff and the DVD drive. I booted and was able to get into the bios and manipulate things. Booted to Windows and the mouse was back. Now to get home this evening and one by one test to find out exactly what device was causing the problem. Try this on yours and let me know if you have the same result. I'll let you know when and if I find waht device caused the issue.

[KachiWachi]

I had a problem similar to this.

What I did (IIRC) was to let the machine POST, then I plugged in the USB mouse.

If I didn't do this, the machine would hang during boot.

Thanks.

[unkiexeon]

Nice diagnosis! My problem exactly.... no keyboard at post... could not make changes in the BIOS.

I did what you said...

1. unplugged everything internally except for the hard drive.
2. replaced the ribbon cable to the hard drive

Now I can make changes in the BIOS... I am about to start testing individual device to try and find the culprit.

Thank you... I will post back.

[unkiexeon]

The memory card reader was the culprit.

I tried all internal USB header connections for the card reader--> all of them would lock me out or disable any keyboard functionality.

Just going to keep the card reader disconnected until a replacement is available.

Computer running great!!!
I hope that this can help someone esle out there?

Good Luck

[markw]

The memory card reader was the culprit.

I tried all internal USB header connections for the card reader--> all of them would lock me out or disable any keyboard functionality.

Just going to keep the card reader disconnected until a replacement is available.

Computer running great!!!
I hope that this can help someone esle out there?

Good Luck

I had the exact same problem. Could get keyboard or mouse to work in Cmos setup. Dis-connected intenal memory card reader and everthing worked. Something about the memory card reader.

Good luck

[davewaave]

Wow, thanks for sharing the memory reader issue. I had same problem on friends hp a1510n, which they finally got fed up and bought a mac. I spent many hours on this problem and just happened on the post. It worked! Thanks again.

[tal84]

Thanks for sharing the memory reader issue. I had the same problem on a Compaq Presario Media Center SR1950NX Desktop PC. I spent a few hours on this problem (including updating the Bios), and just happened to find this very helpful post. It worked like a charm! Thanks again.

[WEDisney]

I wish I could you guys a beer. You were spot on with this one. Disconnected the card reader and I had the computer back. Much appreciated, thanks.

[edwin]

Try setting the USB for non-boot devices only. It's possible the system tried to read the empty slots for a boot device...