Windows 10: Keyboard and mouse not recognized after boot-up!

Working on it now. Heading over to FB to see if I can raise him over the weekend...
--Ed--

PS: Just posted message; will let you know when a response comes through...

 

Came through quickly: here's his response

Straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Hope it helps!
--Ed--

 

If you want to boot from USB media and don't have the means to change boot order, disconnect internal drives, so only USB will remain.

Looks like your BIOS / UEFI was reset, or motherboard is damaged.

 

Thank you for all your extra effort on my behalf, Ed! And thank you, AndreTen, too! I'll try these things and post back. (I'm on hold with Dell now, btw.)

 

Just saw another thread over on General Support that has some great advice (tips) on how to access BIOS on Dell PCs/laptops when the machine isn't cooperating. You'll probably want to check this out, too: Windows 10 killed my dell xps 2710 - Windows 10 Forums.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

OK, so here's where I am now:

• After spending an hour-and-a-half with a Dell "Premium Support" tech, mostly trying things and variations on things that I'd already tried, the main problem has *not* been resolved.
• However, after about an hour with no progress, on the advice of the Dell tech, I powered down the PC and held the power button down for 60 seconds and, a few minutes later, also moved my monitor's HDMI plug from the "discrete" port to the PC's "integrated" (motherboard) port, and as a result I *can* now get into the BIOS (via the F2 button) and the boot menu screen (via the F12 button). The Dell tech said that he thought that either holding down the power button or moving the HDMI plug (which seemed an odd step to me) did whatever it was that allowed the PC to access the BIOS setup and boot menu.
• After an hour-and-a-half, the Dell tech basically gave up and---after mentioning that his research (Google?) had found that some other users had experienced this same issue after a recent Windows 10 update---suggested that I call Microsoft.
• When I went into the BIOS setup utility, the boot order options that I found there were:
  • Windows Boot Manager
  • Onboard NIC (IPV4)
  • Onboard NIC (IPV6)

There was no reference in the BIOS boot order setting to either a USB drive or the DVD drive with the Active@ Boot Disk DVD. However, when I used F12 to access the boot menu, the Active@ Boot Disk ("CD ROM") drive was shown in the list, along with the other three options shown above. That is of some interest, as I'm thinking that perhaps I could use some Windows recovery tools on a disc to access System Restore, but I soon realized that Active@ Boot Disk was of no use for this particular problem, because it doesn't give me access to System Restore.

Now that I can access the BIOS, am I correct in thinking that there's *no* need to remove the motherboard (CMOS) battery, or to move the jumper plug back and forth?

So, should I now follow AndreTen's instructions and disconnect the internal drives, so only the USB will remain? But what about the fact that the boot menu (F12) did *not* show the USB drive with my Windows installation files? Would AndreTen's method still work somehow?

And am I correct in thinking that the Windows install files that I put on the thumb drive at the end of the Windows Store download process have recovery tools of some sort there? I can't remember whether they do or not. If they don't, how might I get the needed repair tools to put on a thumb drive? And will I be able to access the thumb drive given that the boot menu (F12) screen did not show the drive when I had it plugged in? Does the boot menu perhaps show a thumb drive *only* when it has the correct, bootable files on it, or should the thumb drive show up there regardless of what's on the thumb drive? Should I be focusing on a recovery disc, instead of the thumb drive? If so, what source(s) would I use for that?

Sorry for all of the questions here! And thanks for any continuing assistance!

George

 

If moving display from discrete to integrated graphic enabled you to access BIOS, your graphic card could be damaged. Nevertheless, try this first:

- In BIOS (UEFI) check if your USB ports are enabled
- check in security part of BIOS, if USB ports are allowed

if both (above) failed, remove your discrete graphic card and try again.

 

Thank you for the good suggestion, AndreTen, will do.

It could, I suppose, have been that the other thing that I did, holding down the power button for 60 seconds, was actually what enabled access to the BIOS---I did these two actions (move HDMI cable and hold down power button) just a few minutes apart during the troubleshooting process, both of them right before the access to the BIOS became possible---but I will certainly do as you suggest. Thanks again!

 

I'm glad you're finally making some progress. NOTHING is worse than a semi-bricked PC that just won't do anything useful. Hopefully, you'll be able to get yourself a running OS one of these days!
Keep at it, and you're sure to get it sorted out.
--Ed--

 

OK, here's the latest:

• USB ports are enabled in BIOS.
• Under the Security tab of BIOS, there is no reference to USB ports; however, under the Advanced tab there is an entry for USB Configuration, and in that setting both the Front and Rear USB ports are shown as Enabled.
• I decided to move the monitor's HDMI cable back to the discrete graphic card port, to see what would happen, and found that the BIOS setup (F2) and boot options menu (F12) are both accessible. I tested this thoroughly, rebooting several times, and was still able to access the BIOS and boot menu. So, it seems that either holding down the power button for 60 seconds or some unknown factor/fluke is what enabled the PC to provide access to the BIOS and boot menu.

I have also found that when I have a bootable disc in the DVD drive, that disc shows up in the boot options menu.

Also, there is, in the BIOS, an option for "File Browser Add Boot Option", which will show a disc in the DVD drive if one is present but does *not* show my USB thumb drive with my Win 10 Pro install files when that is plugged in. Is this because the thumb drive, which I'd been thinking was bootable, is actually not bootable? Again, this thumb drive contains the files that the Microsoft Store offered to download when I purchased Win 10 Pro from the Microsoft Store last year. I don't remember what the Microsoft Store message offering to save the files to a USB thumb drive said, but I've been thinking that the resulting thumb drive would be bootable and would have recovery tools of some sort on it. Can anyone here say whether this drive should be bootable or not, and whether or not it would have recovery tools allowing me to access System Restore on it?

Thank you.

 

If you look at the USB flash drive in diskmgmt.msc (Disk Management Console), it should show as Active and Primary Partition if it is bootable, like this:



I believe you have access to another PC, so you should be able to check this for yourself (of course, you could also just fire it up and see if it works).
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thank you, Ed. I just popped the thumb drive into my wife's PC and, yes, it does show as bootable in diskmgmt. Given that, do you have any thoughts as to why I have not yet been able to boot from this thumb drive, and why it won't show in the BIOS or Boot Menu?

Although I can now access the BIOS and Boot Menu and also can boot from a disc in the DVD drive, I am still unable to use the BIOS or Boot Menu to enable a boot from the USB thumb drive. Would following AndreTen's earlier suggestion to disconnect my main SSD drive with Win 10 on it possibly allow the USB thumb drive to be booted, or would the fact that the thumb drive does not show up in the BIOS or Boot Menu when it's plugged in mean that there's simply no way the PC will ever boot to the thumb drive?

 

Sometimes this can happen when the thumbdrive is USB 3 and the PC ports don't load USB 3 drivers until the OS gets booted. That means potential issues with those ports for booting from. This may be what's biting you. I'd suggest burning a DVD to boot from instead, rather than trying to troubleshoot this further. This could be just another rathole for you to get lost in. Why not skip it, and just take the easy way out this time?
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Just a thought but have a look in device manager, hidden devices and get rid of any hidden USB drives mice and keyboards that may be showing.

I had this problem intermittently with the mouse vanishing which went away when I removed a hidden no longer plugged in 3g USB dongle that I had used for a couple of days when my main connection was down.

 

Thank you, Ed, I didn't realize that about the USB 3.0 drivers. My thumb drive is indeed a USB 3.0. I'll follow your advice and burn a disc.