Mouse and keyboard unresponsive - can't sign in to WinXP Pro

[Guest]

Problem: Recently the optical drive on my Dell laptop stopped working.
Connecting a USB CD/DVD drive also didn't work. The drive was recognized by
XP, but I couldn't see it in Windows Explorer. A CSR had me remove as many
LowerFilters and UpperFilters keys from the registry as I could, and now my
mouse and keyboard are unresponsive so I can't get past the Windows login
dialog when I reboot.

Question: If I mount my laptop drive as an external drive (say k on my
desktop using a USB adapter, is there a manual procedure I can follow to
restore my registry to a prior backup in lieu of using the XP System Restore
so I can get my mouse and keyboard functioning again?

Any input greatly appreciated.

Walter

 

[R. McCarty]

Do you have a Windows XP CD-ROM ? - If so, I would take the
Repair Install approach to getting a workable system. Have you
tried Safe Mode and then do a System Restore from there ?

 

[Guest]

I booted using "last know configuration" and the keyboard and the optical
drive are working again, but neither the mouse (USB), the eraser head nor the
touch pad are working.

I'll take a look at System Restore. Thanks.

 

[Rock]

I booted using "last know configuration" and the keyboard and the optical
drive are working again, but neither the mouse (USB), the eraser head nor the
touch pad are working.

I'll take a look at System Restore. Thanks.

:

Uninstall any software for the problem devices from Add/Remove programs,
remove those problem devices from device manager then reinstall the
drivers and the software.

 

[Guest]

I got the keyboard back using the "last known configuration", and the CD was
now visible as well. I then used System Restore to go back a week, and now
the keyboard and mouse both work, but the optical drive is no longer
functioning.

Back to square 1 - no thanks to Dell tech support.