XP requires flash disk in port at boot time, before one can use keyboard, mouse

The strangest thing has happened.

I removed a flash disk while XP was shutting down (without going through the safe-removal routine). Now XP boots up - all startup progs load - but the keyboard and mouse are frozen.

If I boot up with a flash-disk in a usb port - everything works fine. Ive tried giving the OS lots of time in the hope it would time out and complain about the problem, but it seems that only booting with the flash-disk inserted will do the trick.

I do not have system restore active, so cannot restore to an earlier state. However something must have been added to an ini file or the registry which needs to be deleted. Does anyone have any ideas where I should look.

Later I intend to see if a drive letter has been assigned to a non-existent drive in case XP is searching for the drive before if will release os control back to the user.

Any help much appreciated.

 

No longer need flash disk, but none the wiser

I previously posted that my keyboard and mouse would remain unavailable unless I booted with a flash disk in the usb port. Since the onset of the problem co-incided with me removing the flash-disk as XP was shutting down, I assumed XP had registered or "installed" the device somehow and was looking for it on boot - hence the freeze on keyboard and mouse. I was probably wrong.

The good news is that I have got over the need to have a flash disk in the port at boot. But Im unsure how exactly I fixed the problem, though I have an inkling.

I checked event viewer and noticed an apparently completely unrelated problem with the IPSEC service with event id 7023. I disabled the service - after this I no longer needed the usb drive plugged in. I was pleased, but even more confused because I cannot understand why disabling this service would solve the previous problem - perhaps it is another co-incidence.

However, that is not the end of the strange story, I have two cd drives and one dvd drive, all of which were previously recognised by XP. Now it only recognises two of them. If I unplug one (currently recognised) it then recognises the other two - any combination. I've not changed anything on any of the optical drives.

Im continuing to find out whats happening here and will report back as soon as I come up with something.

Cheers, Alan