Here's a good test of your skills...

[Tech in SC]

HP Pavilion p7-1225 Desktop PC running Windows Home Premium 64-bit. My customer comes in one morning and the PC has rebooted (likely due to a Windows update). It is sitting at the login screen with the cursor flashing but the keyboard and mouse (both USB) do not work.

Further testing reveals that the USB functionality is dying during the boot process as its loading Windows. USB works outside of Windows (BIOS or Live Linux Distro). Safe Mode does the same as Normal Mode.

The PC has ONLY USB ports... no PS/2. So far, I haven't been able to get the USB ports to work or successfully get into a booted Windows environment. Here is what has been done so far:

* Ran system restore and rolled back to a restore point a few days before the problem. Only 4 points in which to choose, other 3 do not seem to 'restore'.

* Ran chkdsk, found issues (prob from the numerous improper shutdowns), fixed them, no luck.

* Boot to last known good config... no luck.

* Tried to boot to Windows 7 Home Premium DVD but it said it wasn't the right version (no OEM disc of course).

* Mounted the drive to another PC, used D7 to mount the registry and turned on RDP. RDP will prompt for credentials but just disappears when clicking 'connect'.

* Virus scan clean

* Installed USB add-on card... functions same as internal USB ports.

* Tried Dameware to install a remote access agent via network. It prompts for credentials and then craps out once the correct credentials are input.

* Put the HD in another PC to attempt access to Windows in Safe Mode but fails to boot.

I think thats everything. Let's see what some of you other techs can come up with. How do you get into a USB only PC when the USB ports do not work?

 

[Metanis]

Talk about your catch 22!

Perhaps reset the BIOS to default values?

 

[phaZed]

Perhaps this:

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44921

This issue has been cropping up quite a bit lately. Offline edit the registry and verify that these keys are correct:

Regedit
Keyboard:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318\UpperFilters - should read 'kbdclass'

Mouse:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318\UpperFilters - should read 'mouclass'

 

[Tech in SC]

Talk about your catch 22!

Perhaps reset the BIOS to default values?

Oh yeah... tried that too.

@phaZed... I'll give that a try and report back in a bit.

 

[Tech in SC]

Perhaps this:

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44921

This issue has been cropping up quite a bit lately. Offline edit the registry and verify that these keys are correct:

Regedit
Keyboard:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318\UpperFilters - should read 'kbdclass'

Mouse:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318\UpperFilters - should read 'mouclass'

I don't see CurrentControlSet (because the registry is mounted from another PC?) but there is ControlSet001 and ControlSet002. I checked both of those and the settings are as you say they should be.

 

[phaZed]

I don't see CurrentControlSet (because the registry is mounted from another PC?) but there is ControlSet001 and ControlSet002. I checked both of those and the settings are as you say they should be.

You may not see CurrentControlSet, so you can check to see which configuration is being loaded by looking at "Select", which points Windows to the configuration set to use for boot as explained here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100010

Are there any other values nestled in with kbdclass or mouclass?

 

[Tech in SC]

You may not see CurrentControlSet, so you can check to see which configuration is being loaded by looking at "Select", which points Windows to the configuration set to use for boot as explained here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100010

Are there any other values nestled in with kbdclass or mouclass?

Here is what I see:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwKUhQESKKSZb1oyb0h2V3AxRWc/edit?usp=sharing

 

[KompuKare]

Never though of having to get one of these for the toolbox:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_s...&_udlo&_mPrRngCbx=1&_nkw=pci ps2 port&_sop=15

but those should do the trick (if the machine has PCI slots). All US based merchants for you too.

But no, controlset is the right way to solve this. Has C:\Windows\System32\config not got any recent reg backups you could use?

PS: still remember this guy boasting about this new Dell he'd bought 'all modern with no legacy ports'...

Although thinking more along the lines of old DOS boot discs or n-key rollover, I did think to myself: that is one step forward, two steps backward progress.

 

[Tech in SC]

Never though of having to get one of these for the toolbox:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_s...&_udlo&_mPrRngCbx=1&_nkw=pci ps2 port&_sop=15

but those should do the trick (if the machine has PCI slots). All US based merchants for you too.

But no, controlset is the right way to solve this. Has C:\Windows\System32\config not got any recent reg backups you could use?

PS: still remember this guy boasting about this new Dell he'd bought 'all modern with no legacy ports'...

Although thinking more along the lines of old DOS boot discs or n-key rollover, I did think to myself: that is one step forward, two steps backward progress.

Excellent suggestion however I already looked into this before I attempted the USB card and the issue is that this PC only has PCIe x1 and x16 slots. I was not able to find a PCIe card with PS/2.

This is a perfect example of why having some kind of (secure) remote access to your PC is always a good idea. Had the customer been using LogMeIn (which he recently removed), TeamViewer, etc... I would likely be able to easily access the PC remotely and hopefully repaired it quickly.

Yes, there seems to be some RegBack files which are a few days before the issue. I'll move those into the config folder, replacing the current ones and see what happens.

 

[Tech in SC]

Ok... replacing the registry backup files didn't work.

 

[TekSolution]

Remove the AC Hold down the power button for 5 seconds and replug and see if that works.

 

[Tech in SC]

Thanks... didn't work.

 

[TekSolution]

Have you tried different keyboard and mouse? Sounds silly but who knows.

Could it be possible his psu is on the crapper and not providing enough power to the USB ports?

 

[Tech in SC]

Yep tried different keyboard and mouse. The ports work outside of Windows or if I boot to a Live Linux distro they work perfectly so I'm sure its a Windows issue... likely from the update. However, without access inside of Windows I can't remove the update.

 

[Metanis]

At this point I would clone the customer's hard drive for recovery, then I would look for a similar motherboard and install your cloned hard drive. At boot up I'd make sure the driver CD is in the drive. You would have a slim chance that Windows would boot although it would then complain about Activation.

 

[arrow_runner]

Can you get to the recovery partition on the hard drive? Then maybe try running 'sfc' in offline mode?

 

[geekhelp4u]

Have you tried removing he drivers associated with the keyboard or mouse and reinstalling them from the OEM?

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Here is a zip I made a while back for windows xp for keyboard registry entries. Its been a while since i've needed to use these but you are welcome to review them if it helps you find something to compare to: http://www.computerrepairtech.com/tools/keyboardregsp3.zip

When I needed these it usually reflected some sort of issue in the device manager for the keyboard.

 

[codegreen]

Try booting with "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" from the advanced startup menu (F8). I've seen drivers get their signatures messed up somehow (to use the technical term), but disabling the signature enforcement allowed the system to boot properly. If that works, you should be able to reinstall fresh USB drivers.

 

[Tech in SC]

@Metanis... unfortunately the client doesn't have that kind of time to wait. It would be faster to factory restore and reload.

@arrow_runner... I can get to the recovery partition but it only has the option to do a factory restore (not even a repair install option).

@Geekhelp4u... Can't access Windows to uninstall or install anything.

@computerrepairtech... I'll check it out.

@codegreen... Good suggestion... no luck on that either.