Windows 10: Mouse stopped working -- possibly corrupted driver?

(Running Windows 10)
I attached an external hard drive that held recovery disk information, and suddenly my Dell desktop stopped recognizing my mouse -- any mouse, wired or wifi, to any USB (both mice check out fine with my laptop). I checked the Device Manager, and the mice show up on the device list under "Other devices" with yellow triangles with exclamation points. When I check the Driver status for any attached mouse, it is listed as "The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28) There are no compatible drivers for this device. To find a driver for this device, click Update Driver."
When I select Update Driver and choose the option for "Search automatically for updated driver software" I get the message "Windows could not find drivers for your device. If you know the manufacturer of your device, you can visit their website and check the support section for downloadable drivers." However, since the mice I'm trying to connect are just standard 3-button jobs, there are no downloadable drivers -- these should use standard Windows mice drivers.
When I selected the option to Browse for the driver and set the browse to the C:/ drive and all subdirectories, I get the same "could not find drivers for your device."

I tried deleting the entries under "Other devices" and rebooting. It recreates the entries that I just deleted, with the same status messages. Note: when I googled this problem, I was led to expect an entry under Device Manager titled "Mice and other devices" but no category in Device Manager mentions mice except for this "Other devices" category.

:)

 

touch screen stopped working possibly after I tried to use windows defender to update my virus programs and it said it couldn't complete the installation.

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

I appreciate you for providing details about the issue and your effort towards resolving it.

Try the following methods and check if it helps:

Method 1:

I suggest you to run the hardware device troubleshooter.

Follow the below steps:

1. Type troubleshooting in the search bar.

2. Select Troubleshooting.

3. Select View all on the top left corner.

4. Click on Hardware and Devices.

5. Follow the on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.

If the issue persists then follow the below method.

Method 2:

I suggest you to update the Display driver from the Device Manager and check if this helps.

Follow the below steps:

1. Press Windows key + X and click on Device Manager.

2. Expand Display Adaptor.

3. Right click on the video driver and select Update Driver Software. Once this is done, restart the computer and check if the issue persists.

Reference: Refer to the following Microsoft article on
Windows 10 help & how-to.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/support

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance with Windows. We are glad to assist you.

Thank you.

 

touch screen stopped working possibly after I tried to use windows defender to update my virus programs and it said it couldn't complete the installation.

Any ideas on why the touch screen option has died? I tried changing the settings for the touch screen or changing the cross bar touch screen option but neither has caused the touch screen to operate again. Thanks.