Windows – How to reset the Windows 7 USB driver after mouse/keyboard no longer working

keyboardmouseusbusb-3windows 7

I've gotten myself into a bit of a quandary. I have a Windows 7 x64 computer with USB 3.0 ports. I installed some specialized camera driver software (Point Grey's FlyCapture 2) for use with a high-end USB 3.0 camera.

During installation, there was a option to install a new USB 3.0 driver, with a warning that non-Point Grey devices would no longer work. I (stupidly) ignored this, as I thought my keyboard/mouse were on a different (i.e. non-USB 3.0) interface.

I was wrong. Now when I load Windows, I get to the user log in screen and neither keyboard nor mouse works. (Interestingly, if I turn off my computer without letting Windows shut down properly, I get the text screen asking whether to boot Windows normally or in safe mode — and in this screen my keyboard works, allowing me to choose which option with the up/down/enter keys.)

So my question is: how do I restore the default USB drivers to get my keyboard/mouse working again?

Best Answer

Here's how I fixed this:

  1. Went to my computer's BIOS setup
  2. Disabled the USB 3.0 ports
  3. Plugged the mouse/keyboard into the USB 2.0 ports
  4. At this point, Windows started normally
  5. Opened a command prompt and used rstrui.exe to restore Windows to the state before I installed the new USB 3.0 driver
  6. Re-enabled the USB 3.0 ports in the BIOS setup
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