Recent update causing USB mouse/keyboards to stop working

Emily,

First if you do a reinstall of Win10 from the memory stick (make sure it is version 1709 which is the latest version) it will put your current user account into windows old so you won't loose any of your files unless it forces you to do a reformat of your hard drive (which is unlikely).  You will loose all of your programs an apps but since it kept a copy of your download file you may be able to reinstall them from a digital executable file that was saved in your download directory on windows old.  A better solution to try is to follow the instructions from MS below:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091240/usb-devices-may-stop-working-after-installing-the-february-13-2018-upd

But you probably need a windows 10 repair/recovery thumb drive or DVD/CD and boot from that.  Then as the instructions say go into the command prompt through that.  I am enclosing a clip from these instructions below:

• In the Command Prompt window, type the command listed below for your version of Windows and press ENTER.

For 32-bit versions of Windows:

dism.exe /image:c:\ /remove-package/packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~16299.248.1.17

For 64-bit versions of Windows:

dism.exe /image:c:\ /remove-package``/packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~16299.248.1.17

Note: If Windows is not stored on the C: drive, replace the C: in the above commands with the appropriate drive letter.

You will need to know if your computer is 32 bit or 64 bit but if you have no idea most are 64 bit.  If it doesn't work redo this with the 32 bit version.  In the instructions above you need to type this all in on one line and it has to be exactly at above.  The mistake I usually make is forget to put in the space after dism.exe and /.

If this doesn't work and you have a thumb drive with 1709 Win 10 on it then you will need to download it from another computer.  I believe if you go to repair from first screen of that software you can also get to the command prompt.

As you probably know you will need to change to boot order to get any of these to work or it will load your normal operating system with the problem.

Good luck

Emily_F,

I sympathize with you.  Some possible things to try are below.  Since I don't know all the details of your situation some may not be available to you, and the last one is much more technical but for what it is worth:

1. If you have a PS/2 port on your computer and can find an old keyboard with that type of connector it is how I got around the problem myself and uninstalled the problem KB.  According to Sumit Dhiman2 Microsoft now has a patch out to fix the problem; he posted earlier today about it in this thread with links.
2. If you do not have a PS/2 port but are using a desktop that has spare card slots you might be able to find a card with PS/2 ports.  Add it into your computer, plug in a PS/2 keyboard, power up, and you'd be able to log in.
3. You might try accessing your computer with a bluetooth keyboard if you can find/borrow/buy one.
4. You could try using a Linux operating system to boot into your computer.  This will be more technical, but it is not too hard to download a free Linux operating system to create a boot USB flash drive.  Letting your computer boot from it would allow you to at least access your hard drive to copy files and directories from it.  I suspect it would be difficult if not impossible to apply a Microsoft patch within a Linux environment so if you try anything other than copying files you'd want to have someone who knew what they were doing.

Hello, Can anyone help me?

I've got this problem and the only way I can log-on is via a USB-attached mouse/keyboard, so I can't log-on to uninstall this update. I've contacted Dell and they supplied a recovery USB but when I try system restore it fails, whichever restore point I try. Dell tells me my only option now is to reinstall W10, thereby wiping all my files and programs. I can't bear the thought of the weeks of labour it took to load and configure my programs in the first place, let alone the data I would lose. Also, how come if this problem was known on Feb 16, Microsoft still let my computer download and install this update on Feb 21, i.e. a whole 5 days after the disaster was known? Please anyone, any ideas where I can go from here, without losing all my programs (I actually care about them more than I do the data - I have most, though not all, of the data backed up). Please please please ....

Libby,

I am convinced that the non MS AV software is part of the issue.  All the computers that I fixed with this issue had non MS AV with a driver update feature.  My guess is that after market driver update feature is part of the issue.  On the flip side I didn't get calls from many people who I have supported in the past that just have MS defender installed and they would definitely call about this type of issue.  The other thing that I think could be a contributor is if USB devices other than mouse and keyboard were installed and active at the time of the update and reboot installation.  I try to keep computers in a very basic state with only keyboard and mouse when doing updates (especially major feature updates).

I agree that MS needs to do a better job with AV software suppliers but my thought is that they need to be providing specifications and certifications that the software is compatible with their operating systems.  I believe that they are going in this direction with pushing for external software coming from the MS store but for commercial customers this is not currently practical and probably never will be.  They recently did attempt to do this with AV software suppliers by putting a registry key that the software was compatible with the Meltdown fix and they got a lot of pushback but that probably is the way to go for all updates.