You might have seen the dreaded error codes of 10 ("This device cannot start. (Code 10)") and 39 ("Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)") messages. The solution is elaborated really nicely here: http://hateadub.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/code-10-device-manager-keyboard-and-mouse-not-working/
In my case, the issue was with the mouse and the keyboard which made it extra infuriating since I needed to use the On-Screen Keyboard and Mouse Keys (true nightmare). In particular, the issue was with the "upper filters" in the bowels of the registry where you just needed to keep 1 value (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} mouclass and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} kbdclass)
Once I retire, I will get back and take a look at windows documentation, in particular, how the devices are represented in the registry. That is quite a dark world. Waste of an hour, but the joy you get when things are working again is priceless.
In my case, the issue was with the mouse and the keyboard which made it extra infuriating since I needed to use the On-Screen Keyboard and Mouse Keys (true nightmare). In particular, the issue was with the "upper filters" in the bowels of the registry where you just needed to keep 1 value (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} mouclass and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} kbdclass)
Once I retire, I will get back and take a look at windows documentation, in particular, how the devices are represented in the registry. That is quite a dark world. Waste of an hour, but the joy you get when things are working again is priceless.
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