A few days ago my computer decided to rebel on me and go on strike. It was during a thunderstorm, after the power flickered on and off a few times in the apartment. As a result I powered the computer down, and left it off for the evening. The next morning when I powered it on, none of the USB ports or the mouse (on either a PS/2 or USB port) would work.

The mouse cursor was "frozen" in the middle of the screen, though the optical light at the bottom of the mouse was on indicating that it was drawing power from the USB port and the PS/2 port when plugged into either. The steps I have taken so far to rectify this problem started with a system restore, and ended with backing up my data prior to reformatting my hard drive. I also updated the BIOS with the latest version from the Dell suppport forums.

After the reformat and OS reinstall the computer would still not recognize any mouse plugged in to either port, and oddly enough the cursor was frozen in the same spot it had been.

At this point I am at my wits end and quite unsure what to do, any advice would be great as I can not afford to replace the computer at the moment, nor is it under warranty from Dell anymore.

During all of this the keyboard did continue to work. It was not a USB keyboard.

The specs are as follows, if you need more information please let me know and I'll update this post.

Dell 8400

P4HT 3.0ghz

2gig ram

Windows XP (up to date on the lastest updates)

Hi all,

I'm planning on buying my nephew a Nintendo DS when I travel to the UK later this month. However, they are cheaper in the States and I was wondering if the DS was region locked? Or do games from all regions work on it?

Thanks for the thelp.

I'm traveling to the UK in the beginnig of August and would like to purchase a Nintendo Wii for my nephews. However, I'm not sure if they are region locked.

So if I was to purchase one in the US would it work with the games their parents would buy them in the UK? It also seems to be much more expensive in the UK than the US after converting pounds into dollars. 

 What do you guys think is the best way for me to buy them the Wii?