Dell Dimension 5000 - Mouse & Keyboard not responding

fox2319

I've got hold of a friends PC to fix, unfortunately after he spoke to Dell 'Customer Support'. His initial problem appears to have been fixed (I think) but it's now not responding to mouse or keyboard at the Win XP user select screen, even if I try in safe mode.

The PC is ok, I've booted it into Ubuntu and used it ok to recover his data. The question is, what is the best way to get back into windows so that I can try a System restore?

Ta in advance

Jeff

ABH_3

Windows boot disk?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

Insert the OS\recovery dvd press 'Repair'. Or hold 'Ctrl plus F7 or it maybe F11' to activate the recovery option, though this will of course delete all the contents of the harddrive. So ensure you've backed up everything ie: favourites, email address, favourite game servers, diary dates etc all the things that you don't normally save unless you have too.

HTH

deklan99

If it's usb keyboard/mouse try enabling "USB Legacy support" or "USB Keyboard Support" in the BIOS.

fox2319

deklan99 wrote: »

If it's usb keyboard/mouse try enabling "USB Legacy support" or "USB Keyboard Support" in the BIOS.

Ta, will give that a check first. Would that not have prevented it working in Ubuntu too?

Ta

Jeff

deklan99

Don't think so, I have had the same trouble on a dual boot machine and I think the linux kernel loads drivers that are unavailable to XP until it boots up (not quite sure of the technicalities).
Disabling usb legacy support on mine resulted in the keyboard not working at the grub menu but as soon as linux booted up all ok. My XP boots straight to desktop as I don't have windows logon and once booted all is ok with legacy enabled or disabled.
Maybe an idea to have a serial mouse handy in case of mishaps at the bios stage although mine was ok.

fox2319

deklan99 wrote: »

Don't think so, I have had the same trouble on a dual boot machine and I think the linux kernel loads drivers that are unavailable to XP until it boots up (not quite sure of the technicalities).
Disabling usb legacy support on mine resulted in the keyboard not working at the grub menu but as soon as linux booted up all ok. My XP boots straight to desktop as I don't have windows logon and once booted all is ok with legacy enabled or disabled.
Maybe an idea to have a serial mouse handy in case of mishaps at the bios stage although mine was ok.

Ta for that. I've looked in the BIOS and can't see USB legacy anywhere. I played with the caps lock key while booting it up and it stopped having an effect when the Win XP splash screen came up.

fox2319

As a thought, given that I can boot up in Ubuntu ok, this implies it may be a driver issue. Which files do I need to copy to Windows/system32 to put on new drivers?

Also, is there a file I can edit to make it automatically log on? This would also be editing from ubuntu.

Ta

Jeff