Can't use mouse or keyboard

[MarkLarz]

I have a problem where I can't use my mouse and keyboard from one of 2 Win2k
partitions on my machine. They work fine from the other partition. I think
a camera driver install caused the problem. Is there any way to figure out
exactly what went wrong and how to fix it without reinstalling Win2k?
Booting to Safe Mode doesn't work. I don't have a good registry backup.
However, I can load the hives from the failing partition's registry using
Regedt32 - but I don't know what to look for or fix.

Thanks in advance for any good advice,
Mark

 

[DL]

If you boot in safe mode the camera driver wont be loading.
Any exclamtion marks in Hardware Devices?

You have a 'failing partition'? what is meant by failing?
If its a hd problem then using the second partition is not going to help

 

[MarkLarz]

If I boot in safe mode, the keyboard and mouse still don't work. So I can't
logon to see the hardware devices.

By failing partition, I mean that the keyboard and mouse don't work, not
that there is anything wrong with the drive or anything else
that I know of.

 

[DL]

You should be able to run a repair installation, from the win cd

 

[John John]

The keyboard and mouse drivers are set at the following respective
locations:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Kbdclass
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Mouclass


Additionally the port driver entries are at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt

(The port entries could be elswhere but I rather doubt that you have a
serial mouse)

Being that the two Windows 2000 installation are on identical hardware
(there on the same computer, they have to or must be identical) the
registry entries for the three services keys mentioned should be
identical on both installations. Using Regedt32 copy the entries from
the good installation to the failed installation.

While you are in Regedt32 look at the other services in the failed
installation services key,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSetnnn\Services and see if you can
recognize the entry for the camera services. If you find it verify that
the drivers are *not* set to start when the installation boots. The
drivers should have a Start value 0x3 or 0x4.

Note that the CurrentControlSet key is not a real key as such, it is
created from one of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSetnnn keys
when the computer is booted. On the dormant installation you will not
see a CurrentControlSet key you will see
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001 or ControlSet002, perhaps even
an 003 set. You have to edit one of those, probably the 001 set. Look
at the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select to determine which set loads
when the computer boots.

If that fails, then do as DL said, try an In-Place or repair
installation. If you are using USB mouse & keyboard it could be that
the USB stack is broken, a repair install should fix that.

John

 

[MarkLarz]

Will a repair completely replace the registry or just fix bad settings?

Mark

 

[DL]

A complete repair will also necessitate updateing win again

 

[John John]

It will change quite a few things:

What an in-place Windows 2000 upgrade changes and what it does not change
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306952/

It's usually one of the last things to do, when all else fails sort of
thing. I take it that copying the registry keys didn't work?

John

 

[MarkLarz]

Unfortunately, copying the keys didn't work. I'm going to hunt around for
other possible solutions, but am expecting to do the inplace repair.
Thanks John and DL for the suggestions.

Mark