Resolved Mouse and keyboard freeze when attempting upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro

Hello Everyone

This is my first post, so my apologies in advance for ineptitude.

I noted a 21 Aug 96 post by bella96 (windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/57024) in which he said that his mouse and keyboard froze at a particular point in the installation process of XP Pro (upgrading from XP Home). As the upgrade could not be completed, the computer was stuck in limbo.

My problem is nearly identical in that the mouse/keyboard freeze at the 37 minutes to go point when a File Needed caption appears stating that Soundman.exe on Realtek AC97 audio driver disc is required and asking me to type in the path were the file is located, then click OK.

Firstly, I do not know how to locate a path to the file and, even if I did, I cannot use USB mouse or USB keyboard to communicate with the PC. I thought I had recovered the mouse by unplugging/replugging (the infrared light came on), but the mouse pointer still would not move and, after unplugging/replugging, the the keyboard seemed inactive. (Shift F10 and Ctrl C had no effect.)

I read in forums that Soundman.exe was not essential and could be removed, but cannot get out of the installation loop to try it. I have no PS/2 mouse or keyboard. I shutdown the PC, but when it fires up and the Windows XP screen appears, it enters the XP Pro installation process again, freezing as the File Needed caption comes up.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received.

 

Hello Again

I seem to have cured the problem, but have no idea how or why!

A local (well, 50 miles) PC repair shop sold me a couple of PS/2 adaptors for my mouse and keyboard. I fired up the PC, the Windows upgrading process resumed, the "File Needed" caption appeared as before and the process again duly stalled. As I still had no idea of the path to Soundcard.exe, I clicked on the caption's "Cancel" box.

After a few nail biting minutes, the upgrade stuttered into life and completed successfully!!! Should I now look for Soundcard.ee and uninstall it as a precaution, or is it a case of "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it?

 

Welcome to WindowsBBS ,Good to see you got your issue resolved

Chances are "Legacy USB support" (or similar) was disabled or you have an early BIOS.

Too late for this but we encourage all members to enter their system details, it could help resolving any future issues you may have.

Also, please mark your thread as 'Resolved'.