A while back I was installing some fans that go in the place of my PCI slots. Now you're probably going to kick me in the pants when I say this (I know I already have done it to myself), but I was working while the power was on. I figure it's only a couple of fans, you just mount them and screw them in. No big deal. But apparently the metal part of the fan touched a part of the motherboard, my BIOS gives a little beep and my monitors shut off.

Uh-oh...

So I reboot to check on everything, and it all seems fine. The BIOS checks everything it usually does and I go to the Windows login screen as usual. But then I realize that my keyboard and mouse don't work. The lights on one of the hubs flash, and one is just dead. Thinking I had damaged something that had to do with the USB interface, I tried the PS/2 interface for my wireless keyboard. No go.

Now comes the part that completely throws me off. I tried a seperate PS/2 mouse and keyboard that were wired, and they worked. Using a wired USB mouse did not work. Right now I'm thinking that it is a USB problem, but I was quickly disproved when I tried out my Archos jukebox and external USB hard drive.

I don't quite know what to think. Did I somehow damage my motherboard when the metal part of the fan touched it? I'm thinking that isn't it, because other USB devices work, my PS/2 interface works, and everything else on my machine is otherwise fine.

Edit: It seems that when I use a PS/2 mouse alone or with the PS/2 keyboard, my system refused to boot or runs very slow.