kb/m not working

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Guest

No input devices function with my Dell Dimension PC. They function in the
BIOS, where I have tried resetting to the defaults. I have tried to use USB
kb/m, and all combinations in between, and yet nothing works once WinXP
boots. This tells me that the problem is with Windows, not the BIOS or
hardware. Safe Mode brings the same results. I have never seen PS/2 devices
just not work with XP suddenly. Without any way to log in and see Device
Manager, does anyone have any ideas? Would recovery console have any
functionality that I could use?
 
Ben Cooper said:
No input devices function with my Dell Dimension PC. They function in the
BIOS, where I have tried resetting to the defaults. I have tried to use
USB
kb/m, and all combinations in between, and yet nothing works once WinXP
boots. This tells me that the problem is with Windows, not the BIOS or
hardware. Safe Mode brings the same results. I have never seen PS/2
devices
just not work with XP suddenly. Without any way to log in and see Device
Manager, does anyone have any ideas? Would recovery console have any
functionality that I could use?
Click to expand...

If you've got terminal services (remote desktop) running, you might be able
to get in that way.

If you boot from the Windows installation disk, does the keyboard work
there? How about booting a Live Linux disk and see what happens?

Does the PC do anything if you don't connect the USB keyboard/mouse until
after Windows has finished booting?
 
Thanks for your reply. I tried booting with no kb/m installed. Then I
plugged in a USB mouse. I saw HDD activity, and the cursor changed to
hourglass as it loaded the USB device. Strange that there was a cursor even
though no mouse was plugged in?

Yes, both kb/m work in BIOS, WinXP CD-based setup, and DOS booted programs
like Ghost. The problem lies within Windows. Is doing a repair from the
CD-based setup the only way around this? I can't check Device Manager or
anything because my arms are cut off!
 
since the kb/mouse works, there's something wrong with the os
installation... at best, corrupted hid drivers, at worst, a virus
infection or other malicious setting changes in the os.

imho, the best approach is bite the bullet and run an xp recovery
installation... you might be able to do some exploration and recovery
via an external boot, but it will likely not be as complete a fix as the
above. It's been a year of so since I had to do this, so, I can tell
you that it's not as bad as a clean install.

Before you boot up fully or connect to the internet (or lan) I would
boot into safe mode, install the latest virus definitions, make sure
your firewall is in place or reinstalled then run a full scan before you
offer it up to possible lurkers again.

If you do any cc or banking transactions via computer, I'd check those
accounts as well ;-/

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
 
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