Problem with cabinet inputs

[LeedsFan]

One of my project cabinets has developed a problem in that it keeps losing the joystick and button controls. It's a very simple 4 way joystick with one action button running through an Ultimarc Minipac.

The cabinet works fine when first booted up. I can access games through the menu using the joystick control and the games all play fine. But if the machine is left to stand for a while then when I come back nothing works. No joystick no buttons, nothing. Even the USB keyboard that is left attached stops working. I cannot Escape or even CTRL-Alt-Delete so I;m forced to hard shut down. Then when I boot up it's all fine again. This is very annoying. Does anyone have any idea what the issue may be? I'm wondering if it's possibly the powered USB that the Minipac and keyboard are running through. But I dunno....   

[Thenasty]

well you can test that really quick by bypassing the external USB.

But first check in Device Manager that the USB port in the PC is not falling sleep/powering down when not in use (maybe that's what's causing it).

[JDFan]

What OS version ?? -- Some windows versions have problems with Sleep mode recovery with some hardware - check the various setting in the sleep mode settings -- I usually just turn off the sleep settings so that only the monitor shuts off after 1 hour and the rest of the system does not sleep (figure the extra power it uses is not a big deal )

[LeedsFan]

It's Windows XP.  Thanks for the input I will see what it;s like in XP now and report back.