KB & Mouse (USB) not working during system restore

And you tried all rear USB ports on the tower?

Wired or wireless keyboard? Do the lights on the keyboard go off when it stops working?

Have you tried a different keyboard?

Ron

What happened to the wrinkles007 account? Did you just forget the password or did you have some other issue the forum Moderators need to investigate? Did you try to log in 6 times and fail, in which case the account gets automatically blocked by the forum software?

You can try this:

Power off and unplug

Press/hold power button on tower for ~15 sec

Open the case and remove the motherboard battery

Press/hold power button again for ~30 sec

Leave it that way for several hours or even overnight

Reinstall the battery (right-side-up!) and then see what happens when you try PC Restore with only mouse, monitor and keyboard attached.

If that doesn't fix it, can you borrow (or buy) an externally powered USB hub, one with its own power brick? Plug the brick into the wall and connect the hub to a rear USB port. Plug the keyboard and mouse in via the hub. Then reboot and try PC Restore again. If that solves the problem and you purchased the powered hub, maybe you can return it for a refund? But I never said that! :emotion-5:

Ron

Hi again

The wrinkles007 account? don't ask. I got on a merry go round, Logged in, went to post a reply and was asked to log in again which I did, which then sent me to select a nickname which I already had, which sent me back to log in and so add infinitum.

I am making progress, slightly, I tried again with just the keyboard attached and on the 3rd attempt, (restore) I was able to get a response on the first page, On the second page the first keystroke threw up a window asking did I really want to exit or words to that effect. The keyboard then died. Tried again and got a single keystroke before it died again. I have a brand new DELL keyboard (somewhere) which I am going to find and try tomorrow. I've had enough of it for today.

If that doesn't work I'll dig out the powered USB hub that is in a box somewhere and try your suggestion

Many thanks

wrinkles

Cracked it, It took a while but my persistence paid off in the end.

At my last post I was on the verge of a break through in that I had got some response from the key board.

This morning I dug out a brand new Dell keyboard that had been hiding in a cupboard  and connected it up.

First try in RESTORE, nothing, then I realised the mouse was plugged in Removed the mouse, restart RESTORE and bingo I had keyboard. Glutton for punishment that I am I switched it off at that point and tried again with another keyboard, That worked too.

Not to be outdone I then tried with a Windows XP installation disk and blow me but that worked too, with the old keyboard.

So what changed? For the life of me I don't know all I can say is YES only one USB port works during this operation, For those interested, looking from the back of the machine it was the upper right hand one of the block of 4.

Even though there is only one port working this also ceases to work if the mouse (or anything else) is plugged in to any other port. To check this I plugged in a memory stick and, you guessed it. No keyboard.

Why  Dell has this perverse arrangement is beyond me and I have to wonder why it is not documented.

Anyhow I did eventually allow the RESTORE to run and within a very short time It completed and the system was as "New". This of course meant a lengthy sessions with the "De-crapifier", mainly to get rid of Norton/Symantec AV rubbish, a further session with windows update, The installation of my choice of software and there you have it a working PC.

My thanks to those(he) who posted with advice. Hopefully thread this will be of use to someone else in the future

wrinkles

:emotion-21:

It is documented that only one USB port works on older Dell systems during boot up or when you boot from a CD, etc. Why the mouse caused that port to fail is a different issue.

Newer systems typically don't have problems with only one USB port being active during boot-up.

You're not done yet! You need to go to the Microsoft update site and download and install XP SP3 plus all the updates for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, .net, etc etc. Until they're all installed, your system is wide open to malware.

Ron

I must have missed the bit about the single USB port when I read the manual but I will defer to your greater knowledge. I still can't work out why using another port cuts out the working one but now I know it won't be a problem.

As for windows update, been there, done that and I already had SP3 on my "Tools" Memory stick. The addition of Avast anti-virus, Superantispyware plus a few other necessary bits an pieces and we are up and running. All I need now is to find a suitable case for a donation and I can pass it on.  There are usually plenty of grateful wrinkly recipients around here so that should be no problem.

Again thanks for the help

wrinkles

Wrinkles,

FYI -

If you're not in the US and still having trouble logging into the forum, it's a Dell server issue. They are telling us it will be fixed by this coming Saturday. In the meanwhile, quote:

Non-US users can log-in by using the My Account login on their appropriate country’s Dell.com site.

Ron

Hi Ron

Thanks for that, Yes I'm in the UK. At least It confirms that it isn't just me being thick.

PC Problem is sorted now so with luck I won't be needing to log on in earnest, but just to browse the forums

wrinkles

you are *** retarded Xd just start over to the point so you can start windows normaly.

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