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Windows no longer recognizes kbd and mouse - can't fix without them!
Hi all,
After a vacuum-cleaner-related power failure (and an attempt at doing a system restore to an earlier restore point that failed), my Dell Precision T1600 now boots into Windows with several overlapping error messages, and the keyboard and mouse don't work.
"Don't work" means that moving the mouse has no effect, and clicking the buttons and rolling the scroll wheel have no effect. None of the keys on the keyboard do anything - no effect from Windows key, Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Alt-Del. The caps lock key doesn't even toggle the caps lock light -it stays on.
I also tried a PS/2 kbd and PS/2 mouse. No difference - they don't work as described above.
Plugging in a Dell wireless mouse receiver results in the message "Device driver software was not successfully installed" popping up from the system tray.
I can press F12 after powerup (on the PS/2 keyboard - may need a BIOS update) and go into the boot options and BIOS setup. Both sets (usb and ps/2) of mouse and kbd work fine here. But as soon as I start Windows they die.
This includes starting Windows in safe mode.
I can boot from a USB Win 7 installer disk, and the mouse and kbd work fine there. I've tried the various system repair options, but they don't help.
Startup Repair doesn't think there's anything wrong.
System Restore doesn't see any restore points.
System Image Restore - I have no image backups.
Memory Diagnostic - passes the test
From the Command Prompt, I have successfully run CHKDSK D: /R. It fixed a few things, but no effect. SFC /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=D: /OFFWINDIR=D:\WINDOWS fails with an error message about not being able to fix corrupted files. I can't find the CBR.log file, though. I don't know where it ends up when running SFC from a USB Windows installer.
I can't do a Windows Upgrade install because it won't install this way when you boot from the install disk - you need to run it from the Windows install you're trying to fix - and I can't do that without mouse and keyboard.
I used Clonezilla to make a clone of the hard drive and I'm using the clone drive to experiment with, so I'm ready to try anything.
Some crazy ideas I've had:
- use the Command Prompt from the USB Win7 installer to somehow configure Windows to allow a remote connection from MSTSC on another computer.
- use the Command Prompt to configure Windows to autorun the setup program from the USB Win7 installer (or the DVD)
- take pictures of the error messages on the screen and post them here... wait a minute, that's not so crazy.
I found some references to COMCTL32.dll being related to input devices, so perhaps installing a copy in the appropriate place would help.
If anyone can help, I am all ears.
TIA,
Gdunge
Last edited by gdunge; 22 Apr 2014 at 23:06.