[Kowal-A]

Ok so i gave my uncle my old computer last week so i dumped everything i had on it and used the dell restore to set it back to factory settings. I updated all the drivers and gave it to him.

yesterday he calls me and says his keyboard and mouse don't work both of which are USB. I told him to try a usb stick it also didn't work.

He hasn't downloaded anything and he definitely didn't change any settings that would mess the system up this bad.

So the thing is the USB ports dont work at all. I get a keyboard error on startup so i cant get into BIOS or Setup. I tried 3 other keyboards and 2 other mice none of them work and this board only has USB ports none of the good ol' Pre-USB PS2 ports

Im really stuck. He has a bunch of work files on there that he needs to keep.

Running Windows xp sp3 on a Dell insipron 9150

no idea what to do now

[HeavyHemi]

You could buy a cheap PCI USB card. So you can at least access the system

Here's a couple under $20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&name=Rosewill

[DerekC]

Welcome to TSG.

I hope that you mean, Dell Dimension 9150, and not Dell inspiron 9150.

A lot of forums on Dells site mention this problem. 1 person seems have resolved the issue by powering off, unplugging the computer, and then holding the power button in for 30 secs to "drain" anything in the capacitors. Then hooking everything up and trying again. Others by trying every USB port looking for one that works.

Unfortunately it seems this is a common problem, and the most common solution is to replace the motherboard. You may want to remove the HDD, and hook it up as a secondary in another computer so you can get the files off.

For more details on the "unplugging & power button" directions can be found on page 2 of dells forum.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/...px?PageIndex=2