On 10 Jan 2008 08:41:41 +0100, Mark South <mark.south@null.invalid> wrote:
>On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:57:07 +0000, AZ Nomad wrote:

>> How the hell can a usb mouse prevent booting? Does it confuse
>> usb-storage and create a block device that slides in to replace
>> /dev/sda? I was able to boot the cdrom, but not the hard drive.

>Does the BIOS allow you to choose the boot order at startup? It's often
>done by pressing F12.

no such luck. Hitting ESC, F10, F12 and others didn't bring up a boot menu

The boot page of the motherboard (an asus a8n-sli) had a priority selection with
stuff like "cdrom, hard drive" and then the ability to select what device(s)
constituted a cdrom or hard drive. The hard drive has top slot as the SATA,
with "plug in device" for #2 which should never be used.

This motherboard has had problems w/ usb. The power supply for the internal
usb was bad and I went with 2 4 port PCI cards to replace it. I had the mouse
going through a 4 port hub (I have a *lot* of usb on this system).

The mouse might also be defective, reporting a bogus ID and causing the system
to think it's a storage device. Maybe some new vista idiocy?