Thread: Older car PC, won't recognize USB keyboard/mouse

I am trying to fix my son's car PC that he bought from mp3car a few years ago. It does not recognize a USB keyboard or mouse once XP starts, although the keyboard works OK to get into the BIOS and edit things. Can't see the PC brand since it is a double-din and mounted in the dash, but it has a CD-ROM at the top, two USB ports, a 1394 port, 2 audio jacks, two LEDs (disk and power) and a round on/off switch. He has a USB hub connected to a rear-mounted USB port. The monitor is a Xenarc single-din push-in-push-out-pop-up model. (When it is up, it covers the front of the PC, making access to the USB ports in front difficult.)

I have tried enabling a USB keyboard in the BIOS to no avail. I think the problem might be that there's a program call "No Keys" that I can't get rid of, which was apparently never registered. It shows up on the bottom of several windows, and what I can read of it says that if it is not registered in "0 days", the keys will be disabled. Great. How do I get a keyboard to be recognized so I can clear all the windows and start using the PC again? It does not recognize a mouse either. I have tried using them plugged into the hub and also directly into the front panel USB jacks.

The touchscreen does not appear to work either. I did observe that plugging one device into the hub caused the PC to reboot constantly. Unfortunately, I can't tell what that device is, since it is wired into places I can't see. It could be the touchscreen. I tried connecting it via a USB extender cable directly to a front-mounted USB port instead of the hub and it did not cause problems, but it also did not enable the touchscreen.

I'm at a loss as to what to try next. Any ideas?

Brian