Locked out, can't connect USB keyboard or mouse

[Polishwonder74]

This is easily the stupidest problem I've ever seen. If anyone has a work-around for me, I'm in a bit of an emergency situation.

I'm at work, a new Dell showed up, so I configured it, unplugged it and put it into its new home in another office. When I turned it back on, (probably a mistake) I had a whole bunch of new USB devices connected, and since it is SP2, there is a dialogue box asking if XP can search the net for drivers. You have to click on 'yes or no' before it finishes installing the mouse. But I can't click (or use the USB keyboard for that matter) since it isn't installed yet. There is no old-pashioned PS/2 socket for the keyboard or the mouse.

I'm totally stumped. Can anyone throw me a clue? I'm drowning.

 

[Polishwonder74]

P.S. I thought about trying to use Remote Desktop, but I didn't set that up before I got locked out, so that's not really an option.

 

[stevf]

is there a dialog box with buttons? if so, one should be highlighted and you can tab between the buttons till the one you want is highlighted then press enter.

 

[stevf]

oops - forgot no kb either


edit - not sure how dell bios works but have you tried rebooting and going into bios to ensure it will use usb mouse & kb ? this might be enough for the system to see it for use so you can then have windows update its drivers

 

[drum]

with the new dells i setup at work, I usually have to sit there and wait for about a minute at the login screen before I can do anything with the keyboard or mouse. It seems to install itself though.do you have a ps/2 to usb adapter you could try a ps2 keyboard and mouse with?

 

[LeprechaunKing]

I've seen old Compaq PCs do this because of a driver bug....

You should be able to restart the PC in Safe Mode, and the kb/mouse should work there. Look in device manager for any hidden or broken drivers.

You can also try to manually specify a driver if they are showing up with an exclamation mark.

An old model of Compaq you had to manually specify Generic USB Keyboard, rather than a specific model that the driver wasn't preloaded on the system with.

Hopefully that will take care of it for you.

 

[Polishwonder74]

Hee hee hee hee, all good solutions, but I can't get past the desktop because you need the mouse and/or keyboard for that type of stuff. I felt like I had like, locked my keys in the car and was looking in the window at them laying on the seat.

The solution turned out to be that I had to plug the mouse into the EXACT same USB jack that it was plugged into as soon as I fired her up for the first time. Then I was able to click to get rid of that dialogue. I think this is an SP2 thing. God bless SP2, you have to click 5 or 6 times just to get a generic USB mouse installed. . . That leaves you s**t out of luck if you're plugging a mouse in for the first time.

 

[QueBert]

USB problems can be perplexing as hell, I had the same mouse issue, where I had to have it plugged in the exact port it was when I installed the software for it. It took me forever to figure out because in different ports it was getting power. Don't even get me started on my wireless BlueTooth keyboard. Good job on troubleshooting it, even if you just figured it out by accident, a fix is a fix

 

[bruceb]

That is why on my home pc a Dell 8200 I labeled the Motherboard
USB jacks in the back of the unit .. one says Printer
.. other says Keyboard .. this way if I disconnect them for some
reason, they go back where they were and it should work with
no problems .. my unit still has a PS2 mouse & Keyboard jack as
well, but Dell supplied a USB Keyboard ... my Mouse can be
hooked up either UBS or PS2 .. I leave at PS2 for now

 

[Fallen Kell]

The "alt" and "tab" keys are your friend (along with "space" and "enter"). See from the days BEFORE the mouse, that "alt" key would move the focus of the actions to the menus/pseudo buttons on the screen. The "tab" key cycles through the different options available. So when you hit the "alt" key you will see the outline box type thing surround the item it is focused upon. Keep on hitting "tab" until the correct button is highlighted and then hit "enter" or sometimes "space". It will select that option just as if you clicked on it.

 

[Polishwonder74]

Yup, good call, Fallen Kell. That would have been so awesome and would have totally worked if THE KEYBOARD WEREN'T HAVING THE SAME ISSUE. . .

hahahahahhaha!!

I've had to run windows with the keyboard only before, it's not a pretty sight. I can remember most of the hotkey combinations, I just can't remember what they all do. Usually it looks like my moniter is about to explode with windows flashing all over the place as I struggle with every hotkey I can think of.