BleepingComputer.com: Laptop Keyboard & Mouse stopped working

I'm helping a friend with his laptop because since only a few days ago, the keyboard and mouse stopped working. I had him reboot it a few times but no effect.
I brought over a live linux CD and booted off of that, the touchpad mouse and keyboard worked perfectly.

So I'm guessing there is something with Windows that is stopping it from working. Laptop running Vista Home

Been searching the net and forums but haven't found a solid fix for this.

Hi.
What's the make and model of the laptop?

Joshuacat, on Apr 13 2009, 11:53 AM, said:

Let's see...

Got here a Gateway MA7

I couldn't find the exact support for your notebook on the support site. However, you should try to re-install the Synaptics Touchpad Driver from the Gateway website. Here's the driver, please confirm that the notebook is listed under the Supported Computers and Parts section. If not, go to the main support area site, plug in your serial number/model and look for the driver appropriate for your model.

Gateway Support. - http://support.gateway.com/support/?cmpid=topnav

Haven't tried it yet, but the keyboard and mouse won't even work through safe mode, is there another way to get it reinstalled?

Edit: Actually, duh...I'm gonna try and find an external mouse/keyboard I can use to try the reinstall.

Update: Ok, the plot thickens. The external mouse works, but the USB keyboard won't. And I can verify both of these work because I took them from another techs machine for a little bit.

So I'm going to try and wipe out the password file so I can get logged in, then try to reinstall.


Update 2: Wiped the password for the user account. Got logged in and just an interesting note here if anyone else runs across this-->

Device Manager shows the USB Keyboard with error:

"Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)"

Real quickly I removed both the Keyboard and Mouse from Device manager (uninstall) and ran a 'Scan for new hardware' it detected them but still didn't work.

Still working on the total reinstall.

So it looks like what happened, was that my friend installed a keylogger to monitor his kids usage on it.

He did not tell his anti-virus that it was an allowed-program and it promptly removed it.

This would explain it. I reinstalled the keylogging software and it's working now.

Thanks for your help!

Interesting...thanks for letting us know.