Recent update causing USB mouse/keyboards to stop working

Thanks for the info, Mark.

Our computers were disabled by the 13 February update on 18 and 23 February (if only I had been smart enough to disable updates on the second computer after mine got disabled!).  We had the old operating systems (Windows 7 and 8.1)  re-installed long before the 8 March update from Microsoft that you mentioned (which I assume requires operating keyboard and mouse to implement).

In my opinion, by 14 February Microsoft should have downloaded a fix that would restart our computers in an operating condition without input from us (since they had disabled our input devices). Too late for that now, but we are spooked by Windows 10 for the foreseeable future.

Oh how I miss XP!

This worked for my situation, the update automatically downloaded around March 8th. 

Hi all,

Microsoft has deployed the fix in the form of cumulative update 4090913.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4090913/march5-2018kb4090913osbuild16299-251

Either run Windows update or download from the link below:

AMD64 based 64 bit systems

http://download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/updt/2018/03/windows10.0-kb4090913-x64\_3bc0210aa8b3e6ff99c876c8df45d3d6900c6f32.msu

X86 32 bit systems http://download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/updt/2018/03/windows10.0-kb4090913-x86\_e42068a8bf4a1ee4eb5e3e9edf87199ed59b0f8d.msu| | | --- |

Thank you for the info, Siv. Since it seems to take a computer guru to keep Windows 10 working, we plan to stick with Windows 7 and 8.1 (just wish I could go back to XP, which served me for fifteen years with no problems).

Thanks again,

Bill

Hi Siv,

Both my computer and my wife's were hit with no keyboard and no mouse. Mine is now back to Windows 8.1 and hers to Windows 7. I have not yet seen anything to suggest that the problem has been fixed, but you say there does seem to be a mitigating patch out that fixes the issue. Can you please  point me to a reference to that patch, or anything that says if and how Microsoft has fixed the issue.

Thank you,

Bill

Bill,

The answer is in this thread on page 2 in a post by Sumit Dhiman2 but I will add it here:

Info on the update that mitigates the KB4074588 problems with loss of keyboard and mouse

If you have a system that is running Windows 10 V1709 and you can apply the update mentioned in the above article it will undo the damage caused by the KB4074588 update. It is KB4090913 and the link to that update is below:

https://support.microsoft.com/help/4090913

It also talks you through removing the patch manually if you can't access your keyboard and mouse.

One other thing that appears to be emerging is that the issue may be caused by Antivirus software making the KB4074588 patch not complete properly.  When that happens it does remove the existing keyboard and mouse drivers in an early part of the Windows Update process and then when it should apply the new versions that come as part of the update, it fails and they never get installed.  I suspect that something that happens in that process appears to your anti-virus software as malicious and it blocks the update from installing the drivers, or something else in the update that occurs before they are applied and the net result is they never get installed and you are left with no keyboard and mouse.

I hope this helps you.

Siv