K8N Neo USB Problem + Boot/Shutdown issues

Question

I just bought the K8N Neo and I am having problems with it.
First problem is usb. Sometimes when I boot up my mouse and keyboard won't work. That only happens sometimes though. The bigger problem is, that usb devices (mouse and keyboard) fail randomly. Like I'd be playing a game, then I suddenly hear the sound that windows makes when you disconnect a usb device, keyboard and mouse are dead, and then 10 seconds later I hear the sound for plugging an usb device in and all is back to normal.
I've read some of the older threads where other people are having that problem too but I have not found a solution to this yet. I'm using the two usb ports that are attached to the mainboard. Also I tried to disable "allow windows to shut down this device to save power" (or whatever it says) in the hardware device manager for the usb hubs as somebody on this forum suggested. Didn't help.
Usb keyboard/mouse support is turned on in the bios and I have the newest drivers installed for everything.
My second problem is that when I start windows (XP) I would see the loading screen but it's very very dark and nothing is happening (like it's frozen). About 15 seconds later it suddenly is brighter and I see the "loading bar" moving. Also, whenever I try to restart or turn the pc off I get a similar freeze. After clicking on Start->Shutdown the mouse cursor turns into the sandclock and I can't do anything. Can't click on any icon nor the taskbar. Takes about 5 minutes for anythingto happen. That's when I get the "turn off, restart" screen. After clicking on something I'd see "please wait while windows is shutting down" for another 5 minutes to so. Any ideas as to what could be causing this behaviour?
K8N Neo
Amd64 3400+
1024 MB Ram (2*512), DDR333
Club 3D Radeon 9800 Pro
Logitech USB Keyboard and Logitech USB MX510 (Mouse)
IBM 80 GB Harddrive (IDE)
Codecom 400W PSU (+3.3V -> 28A, +5V ->30A, +12V -> 15A, -5V -> 0.5A, -12V -> 0.8A, +5V sb(?) -> 2A)
Samsung SP614C 160 GB Harddrive (SATA)
Windows XP Home

Answer 1

Quote
Originally posted by stranger4u
@falsedown: Thank you once again for your help. I've ordered the PSU and hopefully it'll fix the usb issue (even though now it seems as if only the usb keyboard would be failing randomly and the mouse is ok).
@gamecock: How do I get the drivers for IDE back to the Microsoft version? Do I have to run the Nvidia Setup again and remove the driver or is there a different way? (btw I'm booting from the IDE drive)
Go to your device manager, then IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, and double click on the NVIDIA nForce3 250 Parallel ATA Controller (v2.6).  You can try to roll back driver and see if it puts you back to Microsoft.  If you've upgraded from 2.5 then you will only go back with an Nvidia driver again.  If so, then choose to Update Driver instead,  at Welcome etc choose No, not this time, Next, Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), Next, and then click Don't Search, I will choose the driver to install and Next.  At the Select device driver, you should have checked Show compatible hardware and several drivers should show in the Model window, at least the Nvidia and the Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller.  The standard is the Microsoft driver.  Choose the standard driver and Next.  You will have to reboot  and hopefully things will be better.  To put it back to Nvidia you only have to repeat process about but select Nvidia or run their install again.  Later....
MSI K8N Neo Platinum (BIOS 1.5B5)
Athlon 64 3200+ w/Zalman CNPS7000A-ALCU @ 1.55V
1GB Corsair XMS TWINX PC3200C2PT Memory (Slot 1 & 3)
( 3-3-3-11, 2T) @ 2.8V
2x160 RAID0
1x160 Maxtor IDE 133 (Secondary Slave)
NEC 3500a DVD Dual Layer 16x (Primary Master)
NEC 2510a DVD 8x (Primary Slave)
ATI AIW Radeon 9600XT
HSF on Nvidia/NB (29c)
Antec TruePower 550 =  +3.3V@32A, +5V@40A, +12V@24A