Windows XP: No mouse/keyboard during installation

[AoErat]

So I'm running a repair install of Windows XP today. I get to a part where I need to click yes/no. Should be simple, right? Oh wait, neither my mouse nor keyboard can select an option! Say, I'll just try their ps/2 counterparts (currently USB), oh wait those don't work eiher!

I might note that keyboard works fine in BIOS, other boot disks, etc. Just the Windows XP (home) installer where it doesn't.

Anyone have a clue what might be causing this? Mighty tough to install when all your forms of input cease to function. Google search yields a couple other people with the same problem, some of them solved by switching to USB from ps/2 or vice versa, but that didn't work for me of course.

 

[bjpatrick]

"Tab" and the "enter" keys should be all that you need. If your computer cannot find the keyboard or mouse. There might be something wrong with the disk. Sounds like the drivers for those devices are screwed on the cd-rom.

bjpatrick@gmail.com

 

[AoErat]

Well since I can't use the keyboard either tab and enter don't help much. I've installed with this CD before without any trouble ...

 

[peartree]

The answer here is to plug in the keyboard (at a minimum) as a PS/2 device with the system power OFF. Then power up in a cold boot and try it. I'm guessing that this is not a terribly new system, since it looks like it doesn't want to recognize USB devices before Windows and its drivers are in place.


<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

 

[AoErat]

I have tried that, nothing happened. The system in question is about 6 months old. (Athlon64 3400+, 2x512 Corsair XMS 3200, Abit MAX3 mobo) Windows XP CD has SP1 already on it.

 

[peartree]

Ouch! Sorry.

Neither the keyboard nor the mouse work. Hmm. The likely suspect has to be the motherboard USB controller. I have an older motherboard (ECS), but it does the same thing when I try to use a USB mouse and keyboard. In my case, I plugged both their receivers into the respective PS/2 ports and haven't had a problem since.

Good luck! Maybe a BIOS update can fix it.


<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

 

[AoErat]

Well the thing is I tried a ps/2 mouse and keyboard and they didn't work either, not just the USB ones.

I also updated the BIOS just about a week ago, so I am running the latest version.

 

[peartree]

Hmm. You didn't mention that! (I think). I think you should backtrack on that. Go to one version older, if at all possible. If that doesn't work, then go back step by step until you reach the level that you were originally on when things were working. Something tells me that's your solution.


<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

 

[AoErat]

The problem is there isn't a time when things were "working". One day I did a hard reboot and then it froze on "Verifying DMI Pool Data" every startup after that. BIOS update was an attempt to fix that. I could roll back the BIOS I guess but I hate to mess with that since if I screw up I understand I could royally screw my mobo.

 

[peartree]

Sorry. I understood you to say that one day it just stopped working while rebooting. Rebooting implies that the system was working at one time.

Maybe you could clarify the timeline a little?

If you were running a repair install on XP, then I'd say it was working at one point. So, maybe the right solution is to assume that the entire system is unstable- in other words, you've got one messed up install of XP.

You can try to take the drive out and install it in a second machine, backup your data, and then put the drive back so that you can repartition and reinstall XP. If XP is messing it up, then that should do it. I guess if you want to do an end-run around XP, you could download one of those 'super boot disks' and boot from CD. If that works and the keyboard/mouse works when you're done booting, then you know for sure that XP is dead and it's time to do a clean install.

(p.s. I assume that, since you're posting to Tom's, you have access to a second machine)



<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

 

[AoErat]

Sorry for the confusion. Timeline:

- Windows XP working. (several months)
- I do a hard shutdown (hold power)
- Upon attempting restart, freezes at "Verifying DMI Pool Data"
- I attempt several things to fix said error.
- I update BIOS in vain attempt to resolve
- I back up files to a second hard drive.
- I attempt Windows XP repair install.
- Keyboard & Mouse do not work during install.

I essentially came to the same conclusion you did - XP install is royally screwed. So earlier today I reformatted the drive and re-installed Windows XP from scratch. This installation worked perfectly. So, I'm guessing it was the previous install preventing the repair install from functioning.

Computer is working fine now (although I lost my original install of course). Funny thing is, nearly all those files I backed up from the OS hard drive to my second hard drive are gone. So now my backups are gone but I have a working computer. I just can't win. But I guess recovering those files if possible is the subject of another post.

Thank you for all your help! I really appreciate it.

 

[peartree]

I'm just sorry that you seem to have lost those files and for the time it took to untangle exactly what had or hadn't been done. I would have to guess that XP had been bunged up for some time before it failed and was slowly drifting into trouble. I've had it happen now and then. What happened to you was that it wasn't writing the file tables correctly, so every time you saved a file, it was writing garbage. You may be able to save some of it on the second drive with a utility like GetDataBack for FAT (or NTFS).


<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

 

[AoErat]

Ok, so if I understand correctly, the data was incorrectly copied from drive 1 to drive 2 because of faults of the filesystem on drive 1 (the OS drive)?

Replying here or my other thread is fine.

 

[peartree]

Let's say instead that XP's HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) was corrupt and writing data that resulted in a bad FAT (or file table if you were using NTFS). NTFS is able to recover from truly horrible screw-ups, so I'm guessing you're using a FAT32 file system. So, the data was being written to disk, but not in a way that a correctly functioning XP install could read at all.

It's like someone wanting to write a letter, but having the letter come out in Swahili, instead of English. The letter information is there, but he doesn't know Swahili, so he can't tell that the right waords are even there. Someone (you) asks him if he wrote down the right information, but all he can say is "What information?".


<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

 

[AoErat]

The filesystem on both disks was NTFS. Either things are a lot worse or a lot better now, eh?

 

[DataMonSTAR]

I know this is a really old thread, but I'm currently having the exact same problem. Doing a repair install of XP everything is going fine until Windows starts whining about some unsigned driver for my video card (Sapphire Radeon x1650 Pro). No mouse, no keyboard. Both USB. Both were working fine just 2 seconds prior to that window coming up wanting me to click Yes/No to continue.

The system isn't froze because the green indicators are still moving. My mouse has LEDs on it (for da bling!) ad they are still lit. Keyboard, however, has NOTHING. No CAPS light or anything. Even if I reconnect the USB.

I'm gonna do a Debug 0-wipe on it and start from scratch. I'll post my success here once done.

 

[dvgad]

Repairing my dell dimension 3000 which I guess was using a different keyboard/mouse before the repair:
Despite my using ps2 keyboard/mouse still it did not work.
The solution that worked for me:
I renamed "\windows\inf" and "\windows\drivers" so that the repair installation would not find the previous drivers anymore.

 

[buwish]

This topic has been closed by Buwish