After dealing with this for quite some time, I've finally thrown in the towl and need help.
Shortly after building my computer, I noticed my PS2 keyboard not working. No power, no lights, nothing. We (boyfriend and I) assumed it was a cheap piece of plastic and opted for a USB keyboard. Things worked better after that. I had some issues a few months later where the keyboard would not respond, but was getting power (as evidenced by the num lock light remaining on). The USB disconnect/reconnect sound would happen, and eventually it would come back. I changed the port it was plugged in to, and things were ok again.
A year passes, and now it's happening again, but on ALL ports. The keyboard will work fine for a long time, then suddenly quit, but again maintain power. After coming back, it drops pretty frequently. Also, I've started having mouse issues, where the same thing happens. I've tried 2 different USB keyboards, and it happens on all ports I try.
I've also gone back to a PS2 keyboard (taken from a computer that it was working on just 5 minutes before), and no power, nothing.
Only on the 2nd USB keyboard did I start getting the "A USB device has stopped working" error message, and upon clicking on the bubble, it showed it recognized my mouse, but not the keyboard. Unplugging and replugging it back in did nothing, and sometimes it didn't recognize it to even give it power.
Specifications of my system:
Board: Z68AP-D3
BIOS version: "Award Software International, Inc. FB 10/12/2011
SMBIOS version: 2.4
CPU: Intel i3-2100
Memory: 8GB (Shows >5GB available)
HDD: 1.5 TB with ~ 1TB free
OS: Windows 7 64 bit
PSU: ...... I have seriously forgotten what we put in here. 430W? 450W? I don't use anything that pulls a ton of power, so I didn't invest in a huge one.
Video card: Radeon 6770
The problem is intermittent, with downtimes ranging from 5 seconds to over 3 minutes. I've tried every port on the back, as well as the two ports on the front. 95% of the time it's the keyboard that goes down and is completely unresponsive, but still maintains power. 4% of the time it's the keyboard and the mouse together. 1% it's just the mouse alone.
There are no other USB components connected other than the keyboard and the mouse. My speakers and headphones are not USB.
I really really would not want to have to get another board this close to Christmas, but the boyfriend and I are at a complete loss as to what would cause a faulty PS2 as well as frequent intermittent USB problems on all ports.
Help?