Introduction and my current Windows 7 Startup Dilemma.

[Intuition]

Hello fellow Windows 7 enthusiasts and users.

---------------------INTRO.. about me... my work... and the computer usage... ------SKIP DOWN--- if you don't care...

Let me start by saying I was very happy to discover this forum as I still get most of my work finished using the Windows 7 Professional workstation I put together just over a decade ago.

I am a longtime veteran of the CGI industry in Los Angeles since 1995 when we used SGI workstations to create nice film FX.

In 2009 I built a dual quad core machine for my 3d work when I wasn't working at a studio.

Originally an Xp64 machine for 3d Animation. I added a Windows 7 dual boot setup so I could use the newer ProTools M-Audio and later.. as the 3D animation software updated I could install everything in Windows 7 professional. Maya, Zbrush, Softimage, Modo, etc etc. Whatever the job required.

This 3d animation system was/is a Supermicro X7DAl-e Mobo meant for dual Xeons quad cores for 8 cores in all. Add in a nice GPU and it was my freelancer CGI workstation. It has served me faithfully since 2009 without fail.

This year I had a few boot failures though. Starting in July of 2020 the machine would no longer boot into Windows 7 as it would say there was a missing boot rec on the plain black screen after choosing win7 in the dual boot menu.

I was able to correct this by burning a CD with a startup linux app that forced the USB of the Mobo to be on after Bios hands it off to Linux.

Doing this I could then leave the linux app and it would then use the USB / ISO of Windows 7 since my old disc was somehow scratched and no longer is found by the disc drive.

I used my win7 key to get a link from Microsoft of the correct Professional win 7 64bit ISO.

This was put on the USB thumb drive and I was able to use repair to fix the boot record and VIOLA...

... it booted up and worked.

This boot record problem happened again in Oct so it must be the old spinny drives are starting to fail.
The repair by USB Win7 ISO worked again in Oct.

But, I decided I needed to get this all fixed before it really finally fails for good.

So. I bought four SSD drives from Samsung. 2x 1TB and 2x 2 TB. Samsung SSD drives. The grey label kind.

Because I had to get back to work I started with a Win10 install just to get Maya and a render engine going.

When I was finished I decided to Clone the other drives over to SSD.

The content V drive and the win7 install as well as my old xp64 install for fun since there is a lot of older stuff I may need later....

---------------------------SKIP to BELOW this LINE for PROBLEM----------------------

ANYWAYS.....

So here is the problem.

After I cloned all the spin style drives to the SSD I unhooked everything and just wanted to boot to the Win7 drive.

This seems to work as when I only have the win7 drive hooked up Win 7 does come right up and drops me off at the Login Screen. This is quite heartwarming as I am starting at my login name and icon etc.

The only problem is... that my Keyboard and Mouse are no longer powered up.

I see the mouse and keyboard have no power to them. The mouse has no red dot.

They are powered up during boot and the bios menu works and if I hook up the old dual boot they also work in the old BCD menu.

But, even as Windows 7 starts I can see power to them BUT... as soon as I get to the login screen the both go dark. No Numlock on the keyboard... no red laser light on the mouse.

Now...

I have tried to trouble shoot this the same way I did before. Look at resources on the internet.

There were already a ton of suggestions.

Check the Mobo Bios. Yep. check. I tried both USB enabled modes on and off and neither seem to work any different once the windows 7 logon screen shows up.

I ordered an old ps2 mouse and my mom actually had her old computer which had a ps2 keyboard.
The X7dal-e Mobo does have the old ps/2 inputs. Yet these also seem to power down when the Win7 login screen comes up. Though, I never see the ps/2 keyboard ever power up the mouse laser comes on UNTIL we get to the win7 login screen when it powers down. No laser.

So I am starting at a login screen with no way to use mouse or keyboard.

I found a post that said to delete the usbport.sys, usbhub.sys, usbehci.sys and that the windows repair will replace the files and the older files may work. These files were in the Windows\System32\drivers folder

Well I did delete the files.. rather copy them to another folder and then delete the ones in the in the \drivers folder.

When I went to do the repair... win7 ISO did say that it detected a problem in the boot sector and so i let it "repair" it. It said successful but when it rebooted I still had no mouse or keyboard.

I finally went back and went past the part where it said to repair the boot sector and just do an overall repair to win7 since I had removed the usb*.sys files hoping it would fix whatever was missing.

BUT to no avail... the same problem both ways. USB nor Ps/2 will have power once the Starting Windows finishes up with the logo and hands it off to login. No keyboard or mouse.

I tried unplugging/plugging them in to see if it would detect the USB live and that didn't work either.

I did have the same trouble trying a Kali linux live boot and unplug/replug DID detect the keyboard and mouse so I figured it would work here.

No it didn't.

I also tried the fact that I have a mini-linux that forces the USB to work so I could even plugin the win7 ISO as a precursor to loading win7 login hoping that it would work.

Most [SOLVED] solved posts about this problem involve somehow replacing the USB drivers while IN win7 with the ps/2 mouse/keyboard OR to be lucky enough to have had remote desktop already installed and then remote fixing the drivers.

At this point I imagine I need a granular solution where perhaps I can hand stitch in something from win10. Like using my win10 to maybe text edit something in the win7 file structure so that the command and drivers are in place when win7 boots up. Not even sure that is possible but I can't imagine that something like making a keyboard and mouse work is that hard to do. They are such basic functions of any computer that surely there is a way to get them to work somehow right?

I honestly believed that this issue, since I used to see posts about in in 2012 back when I had no problems that somewhere there would be a fix that would involve running something during boot that would insert these sub drivers that seem to be so integral to win7 to work.

Sadly my old setup no longer boots right either. Even the old spinny drive win7 also drops the keyboard and mouse at login screen.

Hoping someone here can give me another idea or solution for this seemingly small but show stopping problem.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[file3456]

On its face it looks like USB 3.0 drivers are missing. But I looked at your computer specs and there's no mention of USB type. Perhaps just 2.0.

Chipset driver may need to be updated.

You can't use a PS/2 mouse or PS/2 keyboard at all?

Can you go into BIOS and use the Last Known Configuration option?

If you can use a PS/2 mouse, you can use another computer to burn the driver/s to an optical disk then insert that optical disk into the problematic computer, boot the problematic computer and double click the optical drive and install the driver/s via the PS/2 mouse. No keyboard required. It should be all point and click.

If you do need a keyboard when you just have a mouse while installing a driver, then navigate to the start orb | Accessories | Ease of access | On-Screen Keyboard.

 

[Intuition]

It is an early dual Xeon mobo so its likely USB2 at best.

Yeah thats the problem though, I can boot into windows 10 or linux on this same computer and everything works good. ...but the driver side is win7 problem. The ps/2 mouse powers up just like the usb mouse and keyboard during the bios, or win10 or linux. The problem is that when I arrive at the win7 login screen the usb keyboard and usb mouse and even the ps/2 mouse suddenly lose power. The ps/2 keyboard never seems to power up at all no matter what situation. I have no way of even using a mouse to use the on screen keyboard. Its basically no power to usb or ps/2 at the win7 login screen so I was wondering how I even address it. It is true no matter if I am using the safe mode or normal mode.

What kills me is the fact that when I load the windows 7 install ISO from the usb... after running a mini linux from the cd room boot which forces the USB to come online enough to get the win7 ISO usb thumb drive to boot up... that the mouse and keyboard work perfectly fine in that win7 install/repair disk.

I wonder why there isn't the same thing/function that can be added to the windows7 login screen? Its the same idea.

I can only imagine now since I have no control of win7 once I am at a login screen that my only solution is to try and command prompt some driver into win7 boot sequence that forces the USB to come on during the login.

Thanks for the response though, I appreciate it.

 

[file3456]

1) Did you try BIOS Last Known Good Configuration that I talked about?


2) This only happens in 7 you say?

3) This may not fix the issue. Power off the computer. Detach all USB devices. Pull the CMOS battery. Don't replace it yet. Unplug the computer (you'd leave the computer plugged in when removing the CMOS battery for the ground side in case of static). Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Now press the power button five times (probably not needed, just do it anyway). Replace the CMOS battery. Plug in only the PS/2 mouse and keyboard. Plug the computer back in. Boot the computer. Any change? If so, power off, detach PS/2 peripherals and try USB mouse and keyboard. Any change?

It could be the OS its self or a bad USB device. But if this only happens in Windows 7 I suspect a driver or corrupt files. Is this a fresh Win 7 install? You say it dual boots 10? What tool if any did you use to create the dual boot configuration? Did this Win 7 version ever do this before?


I suppose you can somehow stuff a driver inside your current install via a Linux disk or something else. Hiren's Boot CD may have a tool. But first we need to see if it's BIOS and Windows 7 or perhaps the ACPI in Windows 7. It could be the chipset driver. I'm not too sure.

When did this first start to happen? Did you make any configuration changes with software or hardware that led up to the issue?

Answer each and every single question verbatim.

 

[file3456]

If after all that you still have no dice, try Hiren's Boot CD and use the MBR Tool and verify your boot partitions for 7 and 10. I don't know if this is a new install or not. If it's happening in safe mode it may be a boot issue or a combination of a boot issue with ACPI. I say ACPI because you have no power at the login screen which is very odd.

You're not using UEFI? I doubt the MOBO has UEFI capability anyway.

Check your BIOS for ACPI settings.

 

[Intuition]

Thank you for the response. I am downloading the Boot CD ISO now I will try all of these slowly and let you know how each step goes.

 

[rudy1221]

I had same problem on my old win7 installation after i tried dual booting win10 , none of suggested troubleshooting points helped me in the end (fresh installation did).

But a workaround i found which worked for whatever reason was to enter the BIOS during startup once and exit. After doing that my mouse and keyboard did stay powered on through the login screen, allowed me to use machine for a while and later on fix it while maintaining/ backuping properly what i want.

While my suggestion might be an odd trick that can help you out, more permanent and correct approach is naturally as Mr F22 Simpilot suggested.

Hope you get it resolved soon. Best of luck!