Question Can't Install Windows, Can't Use Keyboard in Windows Recovery Environment

[basspig]

System: Supermicro X10DRi, USB Keyboard, RTX3090Ti GPU

Problem: recently had to connect PC to internet to update a software license for a new program I'd installed in April. After that, Windows Update occurred. I began having problems with USB devices failing at random. Tried SFC and the repair system commands, but system only got worse to the point where it seemed like GPU was failing, would crash on renders in Blender and Furmark would crash within 10 seconds.

As a last ditch, I decided to restore a recent system image backup, so I shut down windows with the shift key to bring up recovery environment. Normally I can just enter my password and select a recovery file, but now the keyboard shuts off and I cannot type the password.

I was told my MS to just boot from an installation media, so I tried that next, but the same thing happens. Keyboard stops working!

Then I tried to install Windows from scratch and as soon as the welcome screen appears, the keyboard stops working.

I've tried experimenting with BIOS settings, turning on and off XHCI EHCI, Legacy USB mode, etc. but I shouldn't have to change anything as it was working for ten years in the state it was in so I'm baffled as to why suddenly the keyboard won't work in a Windows Recovery Environment. That goes for USB boot sticks, with WRE and even a third party backup restore tool.

I've tried everything I could research online, but there's not much because this problem is rare--almost no one has run into it. Makes the PC a doorstop if I can't do another in place install of Windows, which is what I ended up doing. But if the system becomes unbootable, it's going to be impossible to load an OS onto it.

 

[Lutfij]

I'm baffled as to why suddenly the keyboard won't work in a Windows Recovery Environment
Just curious but were you able to verify what was updated in that Windows Update process? Perhaps a BIOS update? have you tried every USB port at your disposal, including the USB 2.0 ports so as to get functionality before you can install chipset drivers?

 

[basspig]

I'm baffled as to why suddenly the keyboard won't work in a Windows Recovery Environment
Just curious but were you able to verify what was updated in that Windows Update process? Perhaps a BIOS update? have you tried every USB port at your disposal, including the USB 2.0 ports so as to get functionality before you can install chipset drivers?

Yes, I've tried multiple keyboards, multiple USB ports and still the same problem. It's exasperating to watch the lights turn off on the keyboard as WinPE starts up.
The BIOS update procedure requires booting the motherboard through the IPMI interface (a second computer that manages this motherboard, within the motherboard itself) and running the BIOS update there, so I don't think MS could update the BIOS remotely. But something certainly seems corrupted because it no longer works properly in WinPE. Doesn't matter the source, could be USB boot drive, or the recovery partition. Could be 3rd party utility like Disk Genius. Any of them that use WinPE environment shuts down the keyboard. I've never seen anything like this before, and apparently neither has anyone else as there is next to nothing about this, save for the Microsoft thread I started last month, coming up in a search.

 

[basspig]

I'm trying Disk Genius now. It's more mouse-driven. Only issue is it's 600% slower than Windows Image Backup--taking forever to back up my C: drive. But it seems that it has a disc image recover option while running IN Windows. So perhaps I don't have to exit Windows to recover my C: drive.