Remove password requirement at WinXP login?

I have a PC I'm working on, and for some reason it won't recognize the USB keyboard & mouse at the login screen. I know sometimes you have to wait a couple of minutes at the XP login screen for USB input devices to completely "kick in", and I've waited 20 minutes and they don't kick in. There is no password, so it's just a matter of pressing Enter or clicking OK, but w/o a keyboard or mouse, I'm stuck. So I'm trying to figure out how to disable the "require user to enter password" setting from either a preinstall environment or from the Recovery Console. The keyboard and mouse work fine in Recovery Console and/or in a PE. I'm trying to get to the setting you'd see if you were to type control userpasswords2 in the run box in Windows XP. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!

(it's a Dell tower with no PS2 ports :banghead )

 

Is USB keyboard enabled in BIOS?
It's not wireless is it?

 

It's not wireless, and as I said, the keyboard and mouse work fine when I boot to a PE-based boot CD or a Live Linux CD; I can navigate the BIOS with a USB keyboard so I can't imagine that USB keyboard support is disabled, but I haven't looked for that particular setting just yet, so I'll check it out.....

 

Thanks plodr! It's a fairly involved 'fix' and I'm about done for today so I'll give it a go tomorrow and we'll see what happens. I don't have the phone number of the guy that owns the PC (duh - I forgot to ask him for it when he dropped off the PC) or I'd simply call him and ask him to bring me his keyboard and mouse!

 

I even tried a PS2-to-USB converter and it didn't work. I'm all for the use of USB devices, and I know that PS2 ports are on their way out, but it seems odd that Dell would sell a PC with XP as the preinstalled OS and have no PS2 ports. I've worked on MANY of these Dells with no PS2 ports, and this is only the 2nd time I've been 'locked out' because of the USB input devices not being picked up (the first time was over 3 years ago - I remember it clearly - I had to place an embarrassing call to my client: "can you bring in your keyboard and mouse? Mine aren't working right". :-o Jeez.

 

Hello,
I am not sure if this would be related to a mouse or usb keyboard issue but as explained here, sometimes it is necessary to clear out all usb devices because of possible conflicts.

 

The owner of the PC just happened to show up, and told him to bring his keyboard and mouse over. Here's what happened: I booted to the login screen, and STILL no mouse action! But after 2min the keyboard worked so I was at least able to get to the desktop. It turns out that the Plug-N-Play service is screwed up. Every USB device requires going thru the Hardware Wizard the first time it's plugged in. So, I apparently had his mouse plugged in to a different USB port than he was using, and I lucked out with the keyboard. So I have since plugged the mouse and keyboard in to each of the 6 available USB ports, and re-installed the drivers for each port. I also removed the "user must enter a password" requirement. So.... as of right now, I can get to the desktop FINALLY!