Keyboard and mouse not working on laptop

[tonycard1170]

I have a laptop that about 10 seconds after windows boots up the mouse and keyboard don't respond. I can boot into safe mode and it works fine. I also connected a usb mouse and it still didn't work. I thought maybe it was something in the start up that was causing the problem so I did a msconfig in safemode and disabled everything. Still didn't work. Any suggestions?

 

[acewarlock]

try system restore to a date that it worked.





This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[linney]

Have you tried Device Manager, are there any errors showing there, or in the Event Viewer (ignore errors auto generated while you were in Safe Mode).

Also while in Device Manager, uninstall any entries for Mice and/or Keyboards, reboot, and let Windows rediscover the hardware and install the drivers.

 

[tonycard1170]

I will try the device manager suggestion but if it was a device error with the existing mouse and keyboard would it still affect the usb mouse?

 

[linney]

Basically what you are trying to do in Device Manager is to re-install the drivers to see if that fixes any problems.

When you switch Mice on a Laptop, it is usually necessary to reboot (or rescan for hardware changes in the Device Manager) for Windows to complete the swap over. That might be one reason why the USB Mouse failed to work.

 

[JockMullin]

I have a similar problem on a Dell Inspiron laptop, which has both a touchpad and a joystick embedded in the keyboard. After running for a few minutes the mouse pointer slowly wanders towards 2 o'clock and goes off the right edge of the screen and disappears. Connecting an external mouse doesn't help.

What I did was disable the touchpad in the BIOS and set it to use external mouse only. That solved it; I hate touchpads anyway though the joystick was good but I suspect it was the culprit.

Jock

 

[tonycard1170]

Ok guys an update. I tried all the above suggestions and still not able to make it work. Any more ideas?

 

[linney]

Safe Mode is similar to a clean boot: they both disable non-essential programs and services. Safe Mode also disables non-essential drivers. So check out what drivers you are running.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

As it works OK from Safe Mode, see if you can further diagnose the problem via these articles so as to eliminate possible third party processes as a cause?

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH