Win XP: Keyboard failure, stuck floppy drive on boot

[Cymbal Man Freq]

I don't know where the XP Forums are. Daylight savings time comes around, sets my clock back an hour, next boot I spent an hour trying to boot up.
The keyboard would work in the BIOS but would fail at the login password, the mouse worked though. I unplugged all my external HDD and booted, waited 10 minutes at the login screen, then the keyboard enumerated and I could type my password.

I've read that maybe my CMOS battery might be too low (4-5 yr old computer) and one of the first signs is keyboard failure. I tried a second keyboard, same problem.

Right now I'm scared to power down the machine because it might not reboot. I'm making a backup as I type this. I did a full virus scan, nothing found with Avast.

I've read the jumper near the CMOS might need some adjusting, Dell machine.

The humidity took a deep dip today and even the rechargeable battery on my Norelco shaver died on me while I was trying to shave. It'd run for about 10 seconds and quit everytime I plugged it in and unplugged it. Poltergeist stealing battery power around here.

 

[mitchell65]

There are still a couple of XP forums out there but they do not seem to be well used! I would try changing the CMOS battery. It's an easy job to do and a battery in the UK is about 4 US dollars