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I can boot into Vista just fine, but the mouse and keyboard (both USB) are not working. However, they are both working fine up until Vista boots. Immediately after boot, the found new hardware dialog pops up for the mouse with option to find drivers and install them (the keyboard doesn't register at all). But it's a catch 22, I can't select an option!

Both stopped working about a week ago after a dodgy hard disk was plugged into the PC. I'm assuming that was the cause of the problem, since they haven't working since then. I've tried system restore, but all checkpoints I've tried have resulted in failure (with the helpful Microsoft error message "Catastrophic Failure"). Safe Mode results in the exact same scenario as booting normally.

Is there a way to set an option to force Vista into automatically installing drivers without prompting, but in such a way that it can be set before boot?

I'm willing to entertain any and all solutions. I need to get at my disk fast.

RTF
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1 Answers1

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First, try booting into safe-mode. Windows should load generic drivers for the mouse and keyboard and they should stick when you reboot into normal mode.

If you have a special kind of mouse/keyboard for which Windows keeps ignoring the generic drivers and tries to load advanced drivers, then you can try the System Recovery Options.

  1. Reboot
  2. Press F8 to access the Advanced Boot Options (figure 1)

  3. Select Repair Your Computer

    It should bring you to the System Recovery Options screen (figure 2)

  4. Select Command Prompt

  5. Mount the registry hive

    1. Locate your normal Windows installation (you can use the dir command, but you may be able to use Explorer (explorer) to find it). It will usually be a different drive letter.

    2. Navigate to the registry folder. If your Windows installation is in d: during recovery, then you would use this command in the command-prompt:

      cd d:\windows\system32\config

    3. Mount the registry hive (we’ll use z as the temporary branch):

      reg load hku\z software

    4. Run the registry editor (regedit)

    5. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\z\Microsoft\Driver Signing Check if the Policy value is 0. If not, set it to 0 (automatically install drivers)
    6. Repeat for HKEY_USERS\z\Microsoft\Non-Driver Signing

    7. Unmount the hive with this command:

      reg unload hku\z

    8. Reboot and check that it installs the drivers without prompting you

Figure 1: Screenshot of Advanced Boot Options screen

Screenshot of Advanced Boot Options screen

Figure 2: Screenshot of System Recovery Options screen

Screenshot of System Recovery Options screen

Synetech
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