Member Avatar for Mousey

OK i've been trying to install Windows Vista recently and i've been unable to get past the very first screen due to my keyboard and mouse not responding, i'm running a Red Saitek Eclipse (1, not 2, wish it was though ;)) and a Razer Krait.

Both run absolutely fine when it comes to actually entering XP, i've been fiddling around in my bios for hours trying to find stuff that might do it when i found 2 options,

  • USB Keyboard Support [Enabled/Disabled] was set to disabled
  • USB Mouse Support [Enabled/Disabled] Was set to disabled

so i enabled both options and tried running setup again, and my keyboard and mouse STILL refused to budge when it came to selecting my region and keyboard layout and stuff.

When i push the adjust brightness for the backlighting on my keyboard it works fine, but just to test i furiously stabbed at the num lock and other lock keys and i got nothing, i'm seriously pissed about this, could anyone give me a hand?

If it helps; my mobo is a Foxconn 661FX7MJ running a Celeron D at 2.93 GHz stock, 1 GB RAM, 1 IDE HDD, and 2 IDE Optical drives

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by GrimJack

Dani AI

Generated

As noted, the keyboard lights working while keypresses are ignored points to the device being powered but not enumerated as a standard HID in the pre-OS environment. and point toward legacy input as a rock-solid workaround; below are additional diagnostic steps and BIOS/firmware explanations that often resolve this without swapping hardware.

Common causes and quick diagnostics:

  • Test each rear motherboard USB port (avoid front-panel ports and any USB hubs). Some ports are driven by different controllers and behave differently before an OS loads.
  • Disconnect all other USB devices so the controller only sees the keyboard/mouse.
  • Try a plain, basic USB keyboard. Many gaming/keyboards expose composite devices or vendor-specific interfaces that need drivers and won’t present normal keys during setup.
  • If the BIOS exposes options like “USB 2.0 Controller / EHCI / xHCI / EHCI Hand-off”, toggle them. Disabling the USB 2.0/EHCI controller (or switching xHCI to a legacy/disabled mode) forces ports into USB 1.1 behavior, which the Vista setup environment handles more reliably.
  • Check for and apply any BIOS update from Foxconn — firmware fixes for pre-OS USB handling are common.

If the above fails, alternatives that commonly work: install using a PCI UHCI/OHCI USB controller card (some cards use controllers that initialize in firmware-mode), or follow the PS/2 workaround others mentioned. A note of caution: passive USB↔PS/2 adapters only work with keyboards built to support PS/2 signalling — not all modern USB gaming keyboards do.

Useful troubleshooting notes for documentation: record BIOS version, which exact ports were tested, and which BIOS USB options were toggled. These details often reveal whether the problem is a BIOS bug, controller compatibility, or a device that needs vendor drivers.

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Member Avatar for pluffer

i got the same problem i have heard that it should work if you got a keyboard and mouse with ps/2 connection

Member Avatar for GrimJack

I have run into this problem in various forms and usually have to resort to ps/2 mice/kbds -- and I have to dig pretty deep into the 'old tech' drawer to find them. I finall bought a usb to ps/2 bender.

hope this helps

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