Not sure if this is a BIOS or HW fault

[rob.jarvis]

We've got problems booting up & switching between users.

On boot up, sometimes the initial BIOS info flashes up very briefly, then the screen goes black (we know it's still on because the LCD's light goes from standby to on) and then we don't know if the PC carries on booting or not. Eventually when the screen does display bootup info, sometimes the motherboard announces 'No keyboard detected" (ASUS mobo has voice fault thingy) but then carries on booting up to XP welcome screen & keyboard works fine.

This may be related. We have two users and prefer to switch between them. But now when we try that, the screen goes into standby for about 10 seconds, then comes on to a black screen, then sometimes a mouse cursor appears (which can be moved) but mouse clicks & keyboard are not responsive. We end up having to do a hard reboot. We can get around this by logging off one user before logging on to the other but this isn't useful.

All these problems started to occur at the same time. I'm concerned that one day it just won't boot up at all.

It's an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium mobo, AMD Athlon 64 CPU, running XP Pro SP2.

I tried re-installing XP but problems still occur. Hence I reckon it's either BIOS or hardware.
Either way it's bugging me!

[abeacock]

Is the keyboard a USB keyboard?
What about the mouse?

[rob.jarvis]

USB keyboard

USB wireless mouse

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

have u installed any new hardware latley!!??

[rob.jarvis]

Nope.

I've been browsing the ASUS Forum on Motherboards, a couple have "similar" problems (not quite the same), but nobody has offered any solutions.

[abeacock]

Do you have any options in your BIOS to enable USB keyboard or mouse support? On my board (Gigabyte P965 board) I do and it solved the "keyboard not present" error, that's just reporting on the fact that there is nothing plugged into the PS/2 keyboard port on the back.

Check in your BIOS around the USB settings, it could all be related to this issue.

Do you have a PS/2 keyboard and/or mouse that you could use to test this theory out?

[abeacock]

Well I've just scanned through your motherboard manual (found here: http://support.asus.com/download/dow...-SLI%20Premium) and couldn't see any USB keyboard/mouse options so I guess my tip won't work!

Please let us know when you manage to find a solution...

[Lee H]

It should work with a usb keyboard as many people today use USB hardware instead of PS2 connections.

In the BIOS there is an option for USB legacy support, check if that is enabled if it's an old USB keyboard.

Lastly - if your using the extra ports via the PCI brackets - try the ones on the I/O shield at the back of the system to see if that works.

[rob.jarvis]

Update - when bringing the computer out of standby, the screen shows the welcome screen for a very brief moment (less than half a second) then goes black, but the screen remains on, ie. doesn't go into standby.

But if left for at least ten minutes, then turning the monitor off then on, the screen works fine for the rest of the day.

Could this be a temperature related problem?

[streetster]

In the BIOS there is an option for USB legacy support, check if that is enabled if it's an old USB keyboard.

Also in the bios is a 'HALT ON' setting, usually set to 'ALL', you can set this to 'ALL BUT KEYBOARD' and that'll stop that issue, not got a clue about the switching-user issue, unless you've done a windows update and one of the updates has had a bad side-effect