log on screen does not receive keyboard input

[Guest]

My Win2000 system boots normally... at the Win2000 Professional log on
screen I get a blinking cursor in the password box and can't go any further.

The log on screen is unable to recognize ANY input from the keyboard. No
mouse cursor shows on the screen. Holding keys down produces no beeps.

The keyboard tests out fine in DOS mode in the Bios setup screen and is
correctly plugged in.

I used a reg cleaning tool which was responsible for this situation.
Is there a named mouse or keyboard driver that is failing to load?
Can the Win2k repair console from a cmd prompt be used to fix this situation?

Thanks in advance, Bill P

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My Win2000 system boots normally... at the Win2000 Professional log on
screen I get a blinking cursor in the password box and can't go any further.

The log on screen is unable to recognize ANY input from the keyboard. No
mouse cursor shows on the screen. Holding keys down produces no beeps.

The keyboard tests out fine in DOS mode in the Bios setup screen and is
correctly plugged in.

I used a reg cleaning tool which was responsible for this situation.
Is there a named mouse or keyboard driver that is failing to load?
Can the Win2k repair console from a cmd prompt be used to fix this situation?

Thanks in advance, Bill P

Try booting in Safe Mode. And why did you use a registry
cleaning tool? They are generally considered equivalent to
snake oil: They produce no discernible benefit (at best) or
they wreck your machine (at worst).

 

[Dave Patrick]

If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG (F8 and
choose Last Known Good), It may be possible to rename the system hive found
in
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
to system.old
then rename
%systemroot%\system32\config\system.alt
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system

You can also try using the most recent backup found in
%systemroot%\repair\regback

If that fails you haven't much choice but to copy/ use the
original-as-installed system hive from
%systemroot%\repair\system
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
You'll need to reinstall the device drivers for any hardware added since the
original OS install.

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks. At
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or R to repair a Windows 2000
installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery
Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do not have
the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive
root, %systemroot% or %windir%


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Guest]

Hi Dave,
Thank you sincerely for your very detailed answer so far. Big help.

I think I've tried much of what you have suggested... and wonder in what
order to try the few things the remain.

I ran a chkdsk /r/f on the system over night and it ran successfully.
LKG (F8) fails with a hang in the black screen "starting windows" with white
segments at the bottom of the screen.
Trying F8 Safemode does get to a safemode login screen... but once again,
kbd & mouse are not recognized. Also I haven't been able to get to a
safemode cmd prompt.

From your suggestion, and using the recovery console (which did take my
password) I was able to rename the system hive -- however I noted that
system.alt had an identical file creation date as system -- so this approach
looked doubtful (to me) at the outset. After a reboot I got stuck with the
same kbd & mouse not recognized issue at the login screen.

I see that WinNT\repair\regback contains a zero byte backup system file so
I'm thinking this probably not worth pursuing.... I didn't do anything with
that.

I see that WinNT\repair\system has an older smaller backup file from 2003 so
unless you tell me to proceed, I'm hesitant to try that given that you
mention that all drivers will need reinstallation.

I can try but haven't yet touched fixboot and fixmbr.
So my question is in what order I should proceed?

Regards, Bill P

If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG (F8 and
choose Last Known Good), It may be possible to rename the system hive found
in
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
to system.old
then rename
%systemroot%\system32\config\system.alt
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system

You can also try using the most recent backup found in
%systemroot%\repair\regback

If that fails you haven't much choice but to copy/ use the
original-as-installed system hive from
%systemroot%\repair\system
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
You'll need to reinstall the device drivers for any hardware added since the
original OS install.

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks. At
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or R to repair a Windows 2000
installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery
Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do not have
the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive
root, %systemroot% or %windir%


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

My Win2000 system ALMOST boots normally... at the Win2000 Pro log on
screen I get a blinking cursor in the password box and can't go any
further.

The log on screen is unable to recognize ANY input from the keyboard. No
mouse cursor shows on the screen. Holding keys down produces no beeps.

The keyboard tests out fine in DOS mode in the Bios setup screen and is
correctly plugged in.

I used a reg cleaning tool which was responsible for this situation.
Is there a named mouse or keyboard driver that is failing to load?
Can the Win2k repair console from a cmd prompt be used to fix this
situation?

Thanks in advance, Bill P

 

[Guest]

Hi Dave,
I found system_bak_96892 in my systmem hive. A file from 2004 and I used
it since it was newer than my 2003 system.sav file.

The system comes up and lets me log in. Now Keyboard and mouse is
working... however, I can't get the plug and play monitor on the Nvidia
display adapter out of low res mode (looks like Safemode) fails to see my IBM
flatscreen monitor (I do have the drivers).

Should I keep working the monitor and all the driver reinstalls and proceed
this way? Or should I work from the recovery console, revert to the
system.old file... and attempt to do something along those lines?

Thanks in advance for getting me this far.
Regards, Bill P

 

[Dave Patrick]

I'd download drivers for your hardware from the manufacturer's web site and
install. Reboot in between installations. Don't forget your mobo chipset
drivers if required.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect