Hi,

I'm after a bit of advice regarding a bizarre problem I experienced with my works webserver last night.

I restarted the webserver thru a terminal services connection (no changes were made, it was simply done for training purposes) but it failed to come back up.

On investigation at our host, it was discovered that if we keep the keyboard plugged in (no mouse though), everything is fine. If we boot with the keyboard unplugged, the server stops on the logon screen with a Service Control error. Even if we plug the keyboard in at that stage, there is still no response (the keyboard is inoperable - which is strange in itself)

The service control error refers to i8042prt which I understand is the driver that handles the keyboard and PS/2-compatible mouse for the Intel 8042 controller.

What I'd like to know is why would this occur when it shouldn't matter whether a keyboard is plugged in or not. I would have thought that even if this driver fails, it should not have affected any other drivers, which is what appears to have happened.

For the record, I'm running W2K Advanced Server (SP1) with SQL 2000 in a RAID 5 array. The motherboard is a Tepulo Dual Pentium III STL2 with the latest BIOS.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Stu


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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
"Nothing but the best will satisfy"

[This message has been edited by Stuefc (edited 07-03-2001).]

OK...me is clue-less regarding the big stuff...but I know there are BIOS options for "Halt on" commands. One of which is the 'no keyboard detected' error. Maybe peruse the BIOS of said system for something similar.

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Flush 'N' Forget
FE Stokes WWTP (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

Thanks Bassvax but I should've mentioned that I checked for that option in the BIOS but to no avail.

Stu

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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
"Nothing but the best will satisfy"

i8042prt is loaded in the context of "system". During bootup certain levels of system errors will cause NT/2000 to halt.

Service pack 2 should correct the problem of "hot plugging" a PS/2 keyboard or mouse. But be warned not all BIOs or motherboards can hot swap mice and/or keyboards.

Good luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Comment heard from a Klingon programmer.

"Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!"

Here's some more info:

The local keyboard, mouse and video driver are loaded as part of the first console session. Then other session are started thru the terminal server processes.

You may find this document of help it explains Terminal server on an NT 4 system. Page 21 explains the startup process.
Terminal Server PDF (http://www.csisoft.com/csiweb/pdf/terminal_server_architecture.pdf)

If you post back the exact error or messages your getting. I can look deeper and mabey able to help you solve/understand what might be going on.


Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif


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Comment heard from a Klingon programmer.

"Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!"

[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 07-04-2001).]

Thanks Ghost_Hacker. However, whilst SP2 does solve the problem of the i8042prt driver, it presents a new problem. That being, causing our SQL Server to crash and thus affecting our webusers. Don't ask me why it does this (again no event log error other than SQL Server failed to load), but upon removal of SP2 everything went back to normal and the old i8042prt problem came back.

I'm thinking that perhaps there is a configuration error of SQL, but I'm damned if I want to reinstall it (cos it means me having to advise our clients of downtime{and clients are never happy about that!} and me working thru the night...and damn it, I'm mentally, physically and emotionally drained at the mo due to reconfiguring our network at my office)

Anyhoo...I guess this is one of the wonders of M$!! Anyone know when SP3 will come out??? Hopefully that can solve the probs.....I'm quite content (only cos I'm so frustrated!!) to leave a keyboard plugged into the webserver at our ISP as that does eliminate the problem for the short term, but in the long run it is something that I will have to deal with as we all know that the longer we leave a problem, the worse it gets!!!

Cheers,

Stu

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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
"Nothing but the best will satisfy"