Windows no longer recognizes kbd and mouse - can't fix without them!

gdunge · 22 Apr 2014

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.

Windows no longer recognizes kbd and mouse - can't fix without them!-boot-errors.png

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

Ztruker · 22 Apr 2014

Run SURT: What is the System Update Readiness Tool?

Once that completes, run sfc /scannow again, see if fixes things now.

If nothing else works, you can do a upgrade install of Windows 7 to Windows 7. This will leave your current install under windows.old.

A better choice would be to backup all your data and do a clean install.

See here for how to do either method: Installing and reinstalling Windows. - Microsoft Windows Help

Click on these links on that page:

Windows no longer recognizes kbd and mouse - can't fix without them!-w7install.jpg

gdunge · 22 Apr 2014

@Ztruker:

Run SURT

How? I can't use the mouse or the keyboard.

If nothing else works, you can do a upgrade install of Windows 7 to Windows 7. This will leave your current install under windows.old.

Oops, when I said "Custom Install", I meant "Upgrade Install". I'll see if I can figure out how to edit my original post to fix this. Anyway, I can't do a custom install because I can't use the mouse or keyboard.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Layback Bear · 23 Apr 2014

Set you motherboard cmos to default. Use your motherboard manual for instructions.
Power surges can do funny things to your cmos and the cmos battery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS

gdunge · 23 Apr 2014

Layback Bear said:

Set you motherboard cmos to default. Use your motherboard manual for instructions.
Power surges can do funny things to your cmos and the cmos battery.

I'll try that tomorrow, thanks.

gdunge · 23 Apr 2014

gdunge said:

Layback Bear said:

Set you motherboard cmos to default. Use your motherboard manual for instructions.
Power surges can do funny things to your cmos and the cmos battery.

I'll try that tomorrow, thanks.

It's tomorrow, and I have tried it. No effect - the mouse and keyboard still don't work. I'm not surprised - the kbd+mouse work fine in BIOS or when booted from a CD or USB key. It's only my copy of Windows where they don't work.

Has anyone looked at the screen shot? Any clues on how to make that error go away?

gdunge · 23 Apr 2014

Ztruker said:

A better choice would be to backup all your data and do a clean install.

See here for how to do either method: Installing and reinstalling Windows. - Microsoft Windows Help

Click on these links on that page:

I meant to say Thanks for this info. I'll be using it if I can't get this install of Windows to work again. I'd like to fix it because there's a lot of work in it - drivers, dev tools, tons of apps. I'm willing to spend a lot of time to get it running again.

Ztruker · 23 Apr 2014

How? I can't use the mouse or the keyboard.

Boot the install DVD and run SURT then SFC /SCANNOW from the Command Prompt. RUn multiple times if necessary.

comctl32.dll should be in \windows\system32 and \windows\sysWOW64.

You could try, from the Command Prompt as above, copying the one from sysWOW64 to system32, see if that has any effect.

gdunge · 30 Apr 2014

Ztruker said:

How? I can't use the mouse or the keyboard.

Boot the install DVD and run SURT then SFC /SCANNOW from the Command Prompt. RUn multiple times if necessary.

comctl32.dll should be in \windows\system32 and \windows\sysWOW64.

You could try, from the Command Prompt as above, copying the one from sysWOW64 to system32, see if that has any effect.

I couldn't figure out how to run SURT from the install USB drive. It seems to need to run in the copy of Windows you are trying to fix - and of course the mouse and keyboard don't work, so I can't run SURT.

SFC /SCANNOW fails, as mentioned above. I can't find the log files when booted from the install USB drive.

I put COMCTL32.DLL in both places - no effect.

Thanks for continuing to try to help!

gdunge · 30 Apr 2014

I figured out a way to get the broken copy of Windows to accept my commands even though the mouse, keyboard, and network were all dead.

I noticed that when I inserted a USB thumb drive into the machine, Windows would pop up the AutoPlay dialog asking what to do with this new drive. I could see that the drive letter was J:. Great, USB drives are working.

Using the Windows installer Repair Command Prompt, I put the following batch file in the startup folder of the autologin account. It's named WAITFORIT.BAT:

Code:

@echo off
:loop
echo Please insert a USB drive containing a batch file called DOIT.BAT, and I'll execute it!
timeout 30
if exist j:\doit.bat call j:\doit.bat
goto loop
exit

Then on the USB drive, I put the SURT installer .MST file and a batch file called DOIT.BAT. I've lost the batch file, but it used WUSA.EXE to install the SURT installer with the /quiet switch. Then I booted the computer, waited for a CMD window to pop up asking for a J: drive with the DOIT.BAT file, and plugged in the USB drive.

It seemed to work - something was happening, no error messages.

I rebooted, but nothing was fixed. I added the /log directive to make WUSA put a log file on the J: drive and tried again.

The log file was in a binary format. Never in my life have I seen a log file in a non-human-readable format. I eventually figured out that it needed to be opened with Event Viewer.

The log file said that the installation had failed, with a typically Microsoftian incomprehensible error code. After striking out with Google, and as the user was breathing down my neck, I put in a new HD and installed a fresh copy of Windows on it, leaving the old HD in place so the user can salvage whatever he can.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, everything is now working perfectly. The user has copied his documents from the old drive and is reinstalling his apps.

So thanks for the help everyone. I'm sure that if I had fooled with my batch file trick for another week or two I could have fixed it, but who has the time? Maybe it will come in handy for someone else in this position.