SOLVED Mouse and Keyboard Don't Work in Recovery Mode

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Hi,
I'm trying to restore my system to a backup image that I saved a while ago. The problem is that when booting to recovery mode, my mouse and keyboard aren't recognized, and I can't move forward with the onscreen dialogue, leaving me stuck at the language selection window.

Some of the things I've tried:
  • Plugging the mouse and keyboard to a USB 2.0 port instead of 3.0
  • Using a PS/2 mouse and keyboard
  • Resetting the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt to 1, to make sure the PS/2 port is recognized
  • Installing the latest motherboard driver
  • Enabling USB legacy support in UEFI

None of these proved helpful.
I should maybe mention that in safe mode there's no problem recognizing the devices, and also that the Num lock key on the keyboard lights up and stays lit, even when the computer doesn't detect keystrokes.

If anyone has any advice on this, I'd really appreciate it - it's driving me nuts.
Thank you!
 
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TrainableMan

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when you plugged in the ps/2 keyboard did you reboot the machine? because it must be plugged in at the time of boot up.

as for the usb devices my best hunch is a missing driver that actually controls the usb hub itself so that usb devices aren't being recognized at all.

so DRIVERS, it's almost always missing drivers
 
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I did try rebooting the system several times with the PS/2 keyboard.
As for the USB drivers, I'm not sure what you mean - the USB devices are recognized when booting in normal or safe modes - so what driver might be missing?
 

TrainableMan

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So it works now & in safe mode, what exactly is "recovery mode"? I figured you meant it is when you boot up to a recovery DVD.

When you boot from a bootable DVD it is not using the OS from your hard drive it is using the OS on the DVD, and that OS needs to have the drivers needed to operate the devices on your computer. In fact the OS on the recovery DVD may not be windows at all, it might be Linux etc and you would have to have drivers written in that OS that will operate the hardware on your computer such as a USB hub driver & a keyboard driver & a mouse driver. Depending on the OS and the hardware those drivers may not even exist.
 
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What I mean by recovery mode:
In order to restore to the saved image, what I do is:
Control Panel > Backup and Restore > Recover system settings or your computer > Advanced recovery methods > Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer.

Then I get a prompt to restart the computer, and instead of windows starting up as usual, I reach a system recovery dialogue, the first window of which asks me to select a language. And then, having no mouse or keyboard to work with, I can't move any further.

It might be somehow related to safe mode, because the resolution in this mode is much lower, like in safe mode.
 

TrainableMan

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Try creating a System Repair Disk and booting your computer from that DVD. See if your mouse & keyboard work doing it that way so that then you can restore the system image.

To create a system repair disk, see this How to Geek Article.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
Eventually this was fixed by disabling USB xHCI and enabling ECHI Hand-off in UEFI.
 

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