no keyboard or mouse in XP all of a sudden!

[graysky]

I booted into XP today and neither my mouse nor my keyboard respond! I'm just stuck on the welcome screen. I googled this and found many threads about it - none of which have been resolved without doing a total reinstall. The keyboard works just fine in dos mode (booting to c:\ which is fat32) and it works in the BIOS. Both the keyboard and mouse are USB, but I removed them and tried a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. Again, neither of them work, just stuck again at the welcome screen. Booting into safe mode doesn't help; no keyboard or mouse there too except running in 640x480

I would like to avoid a complete reinstall. Advice is appreciated!

Edited November 11, 2009 by graysky

[DreamsCentral]

Bad Boot Sector. Try recovery console and CHKDSK + FIXMBR commands. It may fix the problem but not for sure.

If fixed, you are lucky - else nothing but to go for a full re-install.

--

Best Regards,

DreamsCentral

Twitter: @DreamsCentral

Signed: Thursday, November 12, 2009, 1:08:57 AM IST

[graysky]

Bad Boot Sector. Try recovery console and CHKDSK + FIXMBR commands. It may fix the problem but not for sure.

...bad boot sector? I can boot just fine, no errors, just no keyboard/mouse when windows loads. I don't think it's related to the BS.

[Insomneac]

If you can find a way to boot into Safe Mode, you can try System Restore.

If not, try a Repair, but you will need a Windows XP CD.

Your options are going to be limited if you don't have mouse or keyboard support.

[net_user]

you might have a virus....try booting to a live cd and do a scan of the hd

[chauzie]

like Inso said, see if you can boot into Safe Mode with mouse + k/b working. If yes, then the normal Windows might be corrupted, in which case you might need to do a repair using XP CD