No keyboard or Mouse function in Windows 7

[JimN]

It's Sunday morning, and football season is over. So here's one for any guru of Windows 7 to earn his chops.

1) This is not an intermittent problem. It is as solid as they come.

2) I'm running Windows 7, Ultimate, 64 bit. It loads perfectly and appears to look beautiful. All my startup programs run. I have Windows Mechanic, which updates automatically, and does so perfectly. I have everything I want sitting right before me. But my mouse is frozen in place, and my keyboard will not respond to any key or key combination. What I am left with is a 30 pound rock.

3) The same results are obtained in safe mode. No mouse movement. No keyboard response. But obviously my function keys work prior to wininit, since I can choose safe mode using the fuction keys.

4) MY POST works perfectly with the keyboard and mouse in a functional USB port in selecting function keys, and modifying my bios. Which eliminates the keyboard, mouse, or USB port as the potential culprit. I can do anything in POST operations that are normally available, using that keyboard, mouse, and USB combination.

5) Using function key selection before wininit, I can select Windows Recovery. But it provides me no choices even though I know some quite recent saves in windows restore have taken place.

6) Choosing Windows Repair causes my system to go through an extensive investigation, and end up saying that my system has been repaired, but I still am left with the 30 pound rock, rather than one that lets me use my input devices.

7) I have not done a previous system back up (dumb me!). But this was because my C: drive is a 3 TB Drive and I did not have a 3 TB external drive. I have now bought one. If I fix this problem such a backup is my first priority.

8) Using System Repair, I can access all the information on any drive I might put on any USB port. And everything is "accessible" but I obviously cannot "execute" any program directly. So what I have done is now successfully saved all of the information on my c: drive to the 3 TB external drive I connected. I can copy any program into or out of any drive I wish to connect to my system.

9) But I haven't a clue how to recover the drivers for my keyboard and mouse, which work so flawlessly in POST operations.

10) It seems what I need is a bootable short program that will install my keyboard and mouse USB drivers, and have wininit accept that installation, restoring my ability to use my keyboard and mouse in Windows 7, Ultimate, 64 bit.

11) Just so any guru might think the answer in trivial, please keep in mind I have tried ALL the trivial tricks. Unplugging power, removing the battery, hitting the enter key three times when attempting system repair while reciting the Buddist mantra, spraying holy water in hope of driving Beelzebub out from my motherboard. I have tried a PS/2 mouse, and a direct connect to a USB port mouse. My system does not care. It just loads perfectly, and then sits there. Thus wininit is apparently goes successfully through the entire load process, but will not install a device driver for the keyboard or mouse.

12) I will gladly provide any further information which might be helpful. But === Do not suggest I hit the enter key, or go to my device manager. I can do NOTHING from Windows 7, and this is not intermittent. I have been struggling through on an old Dell computer I had stored away, and I am disgusted at the thought that I might have to do a clean reinstall of my entire Windows 7, Ultimate, when it stares at me so perfectly, but like a cat, refuses to acknowledge that I exist to choose something. That old computer is the only lifeline I have to the internet, and DaniWeb.

13) So... I can obviously boot from a DVD and I can obviously install any program I want to into my system C: drive (but I cannot EXECUTE such a program, the wininit process would have to do that). Thus, if anyone out there knows of 1) some small bootstrap program that does not involve going though Windows 7, but will boot up and install a driver of any kind that will get Windows 7 to acknowledge I exist, or 2) a way to get my Windows 7, Ultimate to boot up with such a device driver, or 3) a way for me to access my device manager from outside of my windows environment, or 4) since I can install any program I care to using the system repair operation, some way I can get system repair to install such a driver, I would be eternally grateful.

14) Strokes your beards... grab a brew... think about this problem... because it's driving me batty.

[Ewald Horn]

Ah, this sounds like quite the conundrum - "Here type this - oh wait, no keyboard" seems to be what I keep running into.

Can you boot into command-prompt mode only? And does the keyboard work from there? I've had a machine with a very similar issue, and it turned out to be a virus infection that wrote a driver into the System.ini file in the Windows root folder. Drove me bonkers for quite a while.

You might have an entry in win.ini or system.ini that's messing with you, it's worth checking them out and eliminating anything in there as a possible culprit.

[Reverend Jim]

If you are able to get keyboard functionality from the previous post you might be able to run system restore by executing

rstrui.exe

[JimN]

My %systemroot%\system32\restore\ is empty. I have no rstrui.exe.

Further, I can boot into safe mode command prompt, but that prompt simply sits there and will not accept any key action from my keyboard.

[rch1231]

Are you using a USB keyboard or mouse? Try unplugging them and plugging them into another port forcing the driver to load. If not then use one. Also try toggeling the numlock or caps lock to see if the keyboard changes the lights.

[JimN]

See my original response 11), above. I have done everything conceivable. Changed ports... no difference. Tried a PS/2 mouse... no difference. Tried a serial mouse... no difference. Tried a wired mouse direct to a number of different usb ports... no difference.

[Ewald Horn]

Well, if you can't boot into safe mode that way, how about using a boot disk like Bart PE or something similar to be able to still look at the boot config files? There might be something in there as it sounds like something that loads into memory that gives you trouble.

[JimN]

I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit. BartPE is no help. But I appreciate that you're taking the time to think about my problem. I would gladly buy a new Windows Ultimate 64 bit if it would just give me my drivers back. But buying one would just give me another copy of what I already have as an original legal product that was OEM. I'm not looking for a new clean install, since I know that would solve my problem. I simply want to save the installation I already have with all my other applications. But I'm sure you understand that.

[gerbil]

9) But I haven't a clue how to recover the drivers for my keyboard and mouse, which work so flawlessly in POST operations.
10) It seems what I need is a bootable short program that will install my keyboard and mouse USB drivers, and have wininit accept that installation, restoring my ability to use my keyboard and mouse in Windows 7, Ultimate, 64 bit.
-it's BIOS which controls the keyboard in POST, using a simple map. But your kb and mouse both work in BIOS? Then you have a UEFI? BIOS, which can pick up the drivers from a special partition.
So your BIOS is not handing over correctly to your OS during boot - the W7 drivers should load, and then depending upon your setup any proprietary drivers would be loaded from the Run key or wherever.
Use your W7 dvd and Setup, boot from that; it will use the W7 keyboard and mouse drivers. If it works then create a new partition, load a fresh W7 into that and see how your gear works.
Or haul the drive out, slave into another machine and go from there.
Check the drivers/replace them in your orig sys partition.
kbdclass.sys kbdhid.sys mouclass.sys mouhid.sys WdfCoInstaller01005.dll are the MS ones.
But it is rather strange that both those sets would die; they are loaded independently from the Service key; kb, mouse are unrelated. Do you have any software installed that might modify those drivers, some proprietary HAL for them?
I'm thinking that you could import the registry hive and modify the key that starts it. That's what I would try, it would not be the drivers... I'd modify the MSconfig key and Startup folders so as to do a Selective Startup. If you are interested in that path, say and I will advise.
I'm musing here...

[Ewald Horn]

I figured you'd be able to access the sytem files etc. via BartPE, but I think Gerbil's got a pretty good idea going there. Now I'm curious to know if that will work.

[JimN]

For Gerbil: Thank you for your interest in my problem. I'm sorry that I am not so prompt getting back and forth, because it seems like I'm juggling six balls. I still have the problem, and you seem to be the expert that might dig me out. But I'm at a loss about certain processes you suggested. I have been going downhill with my amateur efforts. One step forward and two steps back. I can no longer bring up Windows 7 successfully as the rotating flowers begin, and then the BSOD flashes on for an instant, and the system obviously tries to restart, but is again deviously unsuccessful.

So --- using a program I have that permits me to boot up to that program and look at all the data and programs I have installed in whatever drive I might connect to my basket-case system, I have obtained the following information, as the program gives quite some latitude as to content and partitions.

I presently have this condition in respect to my partitions on my system drive: a 100 MB primary, system reserved, active partition marked C: drive. Followed by a 2.82 TB primary NTFS non-active partion, marked as D: drive, and then a small 1.09 MB unallocated non-active partion.
The program I have apparently gives me the capacity to repartition that D: drive, and make it active. I can make it as small as I need to and can mark it active. I obviously have my original OEM Windows 7 Ultimate DVD. But I have no idea how to proceed in doing as you suggest, since I'm far out of my water as it is in this disaster. And my crude efforts at trying to make such a partition and make it active and system reserved, did not work. I had to back it out. So two things --
1) Presuming what you suggested is not beyond my native abilities, will this process still retain all (or most of) my programs I presently have installed? If it won't I might as well do a cold reload of Windows 7 and spend the next week installing and researching the keys to the products I already have running, which are quite expensive, and might cause me to lose years of research. I have successfully backed up all the information to an external drive, so at present I'm in no danger of losing everything. In any case I promise myself this will never happen again, and my first step after a successful install will be a system backup, overnight.

2) If you believe I will still have control over most of the programs I already have installed I'm quite willing to give it a shot. But rememeber who you're dealing with: someone quite out of his depth in respect to the inner workings of Windows 7. I haven't a clue how to begin, so I would ask you please to list in excruciating detail step by step what I would have to do.

3) Looking at the program I have, a check of the boot record, it perversely reports a green check mark next to each entry for the primary boot sector, the copy boot sector, and the suggested boot sector, all of which are the same value. I can also look at the system reserved properties, and it reports Overall Integrity Status - "Excellent." And everything else reports as "valid," such as primary $Root and primary $Boot... plua a buch of other keys all as "valid." I could possibly send you a screen shot if you think it would help. The program I have has the ability to take and save such a shot.

I really hate to intrude like this. It's not in my basic nature, so I'm hoping that you enjoy this puzzle rather than consider it an intrusion or an odious chore. I won't be expecting any immediate answer... but perhaps sometime tomorrow you can find time for an old man, with a very sick computer.

[gerbil]

No, it's not an intrusion.... we would not be here helping if we thought it such.
So.... W7U 64 bit; UEFI boot; so a GPT disk with UEFI system partition [100MB, so 512 byte sectors] as active boot, plus a data partition as D:.
I am confused as to how your UEFI system partition got a drive letter? C:?
I guess that the MSR partition is hidden from your disk viewer? It would be revealed by LBA addressing of the visible partitions.
I think that I had better see that screenshot of your disk, with all partition information.

[JimN]

I hope this is the right way to put up those pictures. Let me know if you get them. To let you know, for some reason my c: drive, was split up into three different partition letters, for reasons I am unaware of. They are C:, a reserved section, D:, the largest partition, and X:. You can disregard the E: drive, since that is where the external program I use to boot up to look at all those other connections, and the F: drive, which is an external hard drive, that I need to take these pictures, and then transport them to my old Dell computer, since that is the only computer giving me access to my customer provided server.

Ah, well... tomorrow is another day.

[JimN]

BTW... I forgot to mention that if you need any further pictures, just ask. Thanks again...

[JimN]

For Gerbil: Just wanted to let you know that I deeply appreciate all the efforts you've put into this. But it became essential that I somehow get back to my previous condition even if it takes a week. So I reluctantly have started a completely new windows 7 ultimate, 64 bit install from my original OEM disk. Ny office was a shambles, given I had three computers trying to get that one essential one to work, with DVDs and CDs strewn all around the room. I could no longer keep track.

Thank again...
JimN

[gerbil]

Sorry, James, the weekend got in the way.
I note that you had trouble creating a new partition by creating space in your D: drive. For future use, you should consider Minitools Partition Wizard... there is a free home version, plus an offline version, also free, which likely you could have used. I find them much more capable than the W7 management tool. They are capable of manipulating GUID partitions.
I didn't really get around to putting in much effort.... :(
By the way, the UEFI system reserved partition really shouldn't be unhidden and given a drive letter.....