Mouse frozen at log on screen....

Hi Kryptik0,

A cursor in the middle of the screen indicates to me that the system does not see any mouse. The question of course is why does your desktop not see any mouse. Can you tell me how long ago the mouse was working?

Hi Osprey, thanks for responding.  The  last time I booted this computer was about a year and a half ago.  I replaced it with a new system back then.  It was working fine when I replaced, I just wanted a new system.  Anyway, I now find myself in need of another computer, and seeing as how this one was working fine, and was able to handle the software I use, I decided to fire it back up and put it on the network.  Never had a mouse issue with this computer back when I was using it as my primary system.  But it has been sitting in a closet for a year and a half.  

Some more info... I hit F12 on boot up and ran all of the diagnostics.  Everything checks out fine.  No hard drive issues,  The mouse test passed.  The mouse works fine when I am in this diagnostic mode by the way.  When windows starts up, it is frozen, center screen, same spot every time.  Is there a way to select my username and log in to windows without using a mouse?

How about safe mode? Does the mouse work then? If so, then it seems like some sort of minor driver issue.

When I boot to safe mode I have the same problem.  I cannot log in.  

I have plugged it in and tested it in every port on the box.  All of the ones in the back as well as the two in the front.  I have tried three different mice.  A microsoft mouse, a kensington mouse, and a Dell mouse.  The light comes on on the mouse, and the mouse does work in the diagnostics screen when I go there by hitting F12 during boot up.

Oh man... I was mistaken, this computer is running Windows Xp, not windows 7.  Anyway, no the first thing I tried after rebooting was rebooting to safe mode.  I have the same problem there, I cannot log in.  Safe mode wants you to click your name icon to log in just like regular mode.  The mouse cursor will not move.  I have no way of getting in to windows that I am aware of.  I also have no installation disk, if Dell ever sent me one, it is lost.  Any suggestions?

Please answer my questions now.

1.  Is there any way to log in to windows without using a mouse?

2.  Is there any way to access the setup file on the disk partition without using a mouse?  Like in the old DOS days, can I get to a command prompt or something?

Oh, the tab key and space bar and arrow keys do nothing at the log in screen.  None of the icons appear to be highlighted either.  There are 4 different user accounts.

Have you got it plugged into one of the ports shown? 

To try to activate a user icon for login, try the tab key or space bar.

I have seen this on many XP based machines now.

Its hung up on the windows genuine advantage windows update and cannot be fixed.

The way to avoid this is to reinstall from scratch and before WGA is downloaded from windows update you go into control panel under user accounts and change the way users logon.

In Windows XP

Open Control Panel and then User Accounts.

Click Change the way users log on or off option.

Uncheck both Use the welcome screen and fast user switching and click the Apply options button.

Then download and Run the XP administrator Auto Login.

To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix it button or link. Click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.

Then tell it the default account is administrator with whatever password is used if its none leave that blank.

Then download 396 windows updates in 3 phases.  They sneek the WGA Tool in as a critical update in a list of hundreds.  If you do not take the above steps you will end up hung at the welcome screen.

I have reinstalled 20 machines and the HANG at welcome is repeatable.

I suggest downloading XP SP2 and XP SP3 as full downloads 300 megs and installing them offline.

I saw this a few days ago on an XP machine; found myself  doing a CTRL/Shift/Esc and it freed up the mouse. Don't know why but it worked. Can't hurt to try it.