sorry for cluttering the forum but i'm reposting this in a last ditch effort at help: I own a Dell laptop and was running xp with a logitech trackball. I decided to reinstall xp (just a refresh, not a complete reinstall) and stupidly did not backup my files. Halfway through the reinstall, the installation informed me that my mouse software was not xp approved and disabled it. When it came time to select the timezone and language and such, I found that my mouse and keyboard had been disabled. So, now I am stuck halfway through a reinstall, with no use of my mouse or keyboard. There is no way to get past this screen without selecting something, which is currently impossible. Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue? My BIOS are all up to date and my mouse and keyboard worked before when running xp. However, drivers seem to have been disabled. Is there anyway that I can re-enable them (is there something I can do in the recovery console or something?) When I log into the recovery console, my i8042prt is set to system as it should be, but still nothing seems to work. Also, the support site for microsoft has provided no useful help yet. I have read all of the articles on mouse not working or not working on upgrade. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

You obviously have a computer that can boot to Windows and give you the internet...correct? In that case you Dell laptop should have a PS/2 or USB port (whichever type your keyboard or mouse is) and plug it into that. You can do the entire Windows XP installation with the use of a keyboard, using the ALT and TAB buttons, it will be tedious, but it will work. Later, when you can go into windows, use your Mouse, and open the Device Manager, if a device is disabled, it will have a red "X" on the icon next to the disabled device. Open the properties for it, and either enable the device, or reinstall new drivers for it. If it is a logitech trackball, drivers should be readily available at the logitech website (http://www.logitech.com)

You probably have a usb logitech trackball, I have one also, on mine it came with a ps\2 adapter try that, windows has the driver for it automatically, it doesn't have the webwheel that way but it will work. Also if you have a usb keyboard and you pc has a connect for a pc\2 keyboard go buy a cheep one to get you up and running. I bought one last weekend for $3.50.

thanks for the help however, my trackball is already ps/2 when windows disables my drivers it disables everything keyboard goes mouse goes nothing works this means i can't even finish the install with the use of the keyboard and tab buttons also, it disables all input it seems because a usb mouse isn't even detected if i pulg in a usb mouse or keyboard neither of those will work the keyboard and mouse both work before xp boots but once xp or the installation starts up mouse and keyboard stop i'm really stumped on how to get around this any more suggestions would be wonderful

Can you get to yur bios with your keyboard? Also what brand of pc do you have?

hello. you can shutdown (turn off) your computer. get ps/2 mouse, standart keyboard (ps/2 not usb) and restart your computer. After restart setup will continue at point where you shutdown. if you will not get keyboard or mouse to work again, Tray to go in safe mode on windows XP and delete in device manager mouse and keyboard drivers. For more help E-mail me

i own a Dell laptop BIOS and everything work fine and are updated keyboard works perfectly in the BIOS however, laptop keyboard and touchpad do not work when xp loads neither does a ps/2 mouse or keyboard or any type of usb device it would seem hence i would believe it to be a xp driver issue also note that everything worked before but when the xp install uninstalled my mouse software that's when the mouse and keyboard were disabled also i'm in the middle of an install so i can't log onto xp to do anything else still absolutely stuck by the way thanks for the help so far