You can also toggle on-screen keyboard if your keyboard isn’t working. Make sure that you have a wireless/PS2 mouse connected to your computer. Right-click on the taskbar and select “Show touch keyboard button”. This will launch the on-screen keyboard and you can use to type till we fix the problem.
Solution 1: Checking PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard
Before we resort to more complex solutions, we will try to fix the problem using simple fixes which worked for people. The PS/2 port is a six-pin connector used for connecting keyboards and mice to your computer. It was introduced in the late 1990’s and were popular until USB mice and keyboard took over.
If your computer has PS/2 ports, try plugging in a PS/2 mouse/keyboard and see if it works. In most cases, the computer detects the device instantly and it works without any trouble. Turn off your machine, plug in the PS/2 device and turn on your PC the normal way. After logging into Windows, switch your USB Keyboard/Mouse and check if the computer detects it. If it doesn’t, restart your computer while keeping the USB Keyboard/Mouse plugged in. Note: You should also plug in any USB storage device to make sure that your USB ports are working properly. If they aren’t, it means that the problem lies with the USB ports. We can try reinstalling the drivers as shown in the later solutions. Another thing you can try is loading your operating system without any peripherals connected. Once the operating system is fully booted up, plug in the devices and check if they are working properly.
Solution 2: Turning off Fast Startup
Windows 10’s Fast Startup (also called fast boot) works similarly to the hybrid sleep modes of previous versions of windows. It combines the elements of a cold shutdown and the hibernate feature. When you shut down your computer, Windows logs off all users and closes all applications similar to the cold boot. At this point, Window’s state is similar to when it is freshly booted up (as all users are logged off and applications are closed). However, the system session is running and the kernel is already loaded up. Then Windows sends a notification to devise drivers to prepare for hibernation and saves the current system state to hibernation and turns off the computer. When you restart the computer, Windows doesn’t have to reload the kernel, system state or the drivers. It just refreshes your RAM with the loaded image in the hibernation file and navigates you to the startup screen. This feature makes Windows boot faster so you don’t have to wait the traditional time. However, this feature is also known to cause problems by not loading the required drivers properly each time. As it doesn’t reload the drivers, some drivers might not be already be loaded. Due to this, your mouse and keyboard might not be working properly.
Solution 3: Uninstalling Drivers for the Mouse/Keyboard
We can now try reinstalling the default drivers for your device by uninstalling them from the device manager and restarting your computer. When you restart your computer, the computer automatically detects the hardware connected and since there are no drivers installed for the device, it installs the default drivers.
Solution 4: Changing Power Management Settings
Each device has a feature where it turns off when not in use to save power or windows can wake up from sleep if any activity is detected on the device. These options are known to cause problems in many cases. The power saving is also very minute as a keyboard or a mouse doesn’t consume a lot of energy. We can try disabling these options and check if they do the trick. “Allow this device to wake the computer”
Do the same for all the mice and keyboards.
Note: If you have more than one USB Root Hubs on your computer, apply this change to all of them. Note: If you see any USB ports disabled or having an exclamation mark in in front of their name, either enable them or update their drivers properly. This is a sign that the port/device isn’t working because of a driver issue.
Solution 5: Changing Ease of Access Settings
Ease of Access settings is available on almost all versions of Windows to help the user in using the computer. Sometimes these settings might not be configured/not be working properly causing problems in using the mouse and keyboard. We can disable these settings and check if the issue gets resolved.
If you were having trouble with your mouse, you can go ahead and restart your computer. If you are having problems with your keyboard, we can change its ease of access settings as well.
“Turn on Mouse keys” “Turn on Sticky Keys” “Turn on Toggle Keys” “Turn on Filter Keys”
Press Apply to save changes and exit. You can also disable filter keys by pressing the right “Shift” key for 10 seconds. A small window will pop up asking you to either enable the filter keys or disable them.
Solution 6: Running ChkDsk
We can try checking if your computer has any discrepancies or corrupt sectors. It is possible that the location where your device drivers are located is corrupted or in conflict with another entity. CHKDSK E: /f Here “E” is the name of the disk driver which is following by the “/f” command.
sfc /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Solution 7: Changing BIOS Settings
If all the solutions above don’t work, we can try changing your BIOS Settings. The BIOS is the main module your computer accesses when it powers on. It is the BIOS which kick-starts your operating system and helps in loading all the essential drivers. First, open your BIOS and try disabling the USB2 Legacy Support. We cannot list the exact method as all manufacturers have their own BIOS settings format. After you disabled the option, restart your computer and check if this makes any difference. If it doesn’t, you can reset BIOS to Optimized Default. The computer might prompt for a password and upon entering, the BIOS settings will be fresh.
Solution 8: Restoring your Windows
If all the above methods don’t work, we can try restoring your system to the last system restore point. Save all your work correctly and backup any important data. Do note that all the changes to your system configurations after the last restore point will be removed.
You can learn more about system restore to gain more knowledge about what it does and what are the processes involved. Note: You can also enter restore mode if you abruptly take off the power cord connected to your computer. For laptops, take out the battery while the laptop is still running. You may have to repeat this process a two or three times before you boot in recovery mode. Do this at your own risk. There is also a danger of damaging your computer by pulling out the power abruptly.
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