My desktop won't recognize any hardware

[deact619]

I've had my desktop for a little over a year and a half, and I usually leave it on overnight unless I'll be gone more than a day. I turned off the monitor before I went to bed last night (it was working fine) and then when I woke up this morning, I turned on the monitor and it said "no signal" and went to standby. I restarted the computer a few times, to no prevail. I cleaned off the fans and the inside of the case, but still nothing.

Once I put it all back together, I realized that when I plugged in my wireless USB mouse, the light flickered green then went out (this happened in all 6 of the USB plugs, or whatever you call them). The light stays on when I plug it into my laptop, so I know my mouse isn't the problem.

The computer itself looks like it's working. The lights are on, the fans are going. It seems to me like the computer just won't recognize any hardware I plug into it. Has anyone heard of this kind of thing before?

I use Windows XP. My motherboard is an ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium with wi-fi. My memory is 2GB DDR2 Twin2X. Let me know if you want to know any other specs.

Thank you so much,
Andrea

[Geek-9pm]

Yes. That happens. Even other brands can do that. Even some of the best Intel boards can do that. I have one like that. I have to turn it on and off several times with an external power strip. The monitor also. I have to turn it on and off. It seems they don't like each other. So I just do the ton and off routine until they get together.  Once they are back on track they stay for awhile. 

Are Computers becoming more like People?