Virtualization of Windows 7 - keyboard not working

[Twinsen2000]

Hi,

I have a big problem with the virtualization of my old Windows 7 (guest) on Windows 7 (host). I've moved the C:, D: and the boot drive from my old desktop with Disk2vhd to three VHD files and created a virtual machine with 4 GB memory and 128 MB graphics memory. Initially, Windows was not starting, so I fixed the problem with the Windows 7 Repair DVD.

The problem:
In the Windows 7 guest boot menu the keyboard is working fine. I'm getting to the login screen from Windows and there is the keybord not working, but the mouse works fine. At this point I can't login.

So far I have tried the following to solve the problem:
I tried to activate the on-screen keyboard with the mouse, but for some reason this is not working, also not in Windows 7 safe mode.
I waited for more than 30 minutes, if Windows will recognize the keyboard on the logon screen, but in vain.
I also tried activating the on-screen keyboard before moving the drives to VHD files, so that the on-screen keyboard were already active with the login screen, but it failed.
I downloaded the VBox Guest Additions driver and tried to preinstall it on the old desktop, but only got error messages because the hardware was missing.
I tried a second keyboard.
I tried to start with USB 1.1 controller, USB 2.0 controller and without USB controller. I have no USB filters enabled.

Please note the keyboard is working fine in other guest machines. I hope you can help me.

Cheers Twinsen

Info:
I have a Chicony and a Cherry USB keyboad and I'm running VirtualBox 6.0.10.

[MontyMan]

Dear Twinsen,

I noticed a similar issue with my 32-bit XP guest, running in VB under Linux Mint 19. In my case, when I start the VM, when the initial "welcome" (login) screen appears, I see the list of user names and boxes in which to type a password, just as I would on the metal, but sometimes the cursor (caret) is not flashing in the password box of the "last logged in" user, indicating I should start typing the password. This happens sometimes but not always. When it does, I've tried task-switching away from the VM and back into it, and similar antics until the blinking cursor appears. I think it may just be one of those time delays built-in to Windows.

I remember from my XP days that this would occasionally happen on the metal: welcome screen appears but keyboard is unresponsive, even after clicking the mouse into one of the password boxes. The workaround for the issue at the time was to hit ctrl-alt-delete twice, then the ole school Windows 2000 style username and password box would appear, and this time the keyboard would work normally.

Hope some of this helps. Best,
..Monty.

Off topic: why in the world did Microsoft start calling the vertical-bar cursor the "caret" in some versions of Windows? It looks nothing like a circumflex....

[fth0]

Off topic: why in the world did Microsoft start calling the horizontal-bar cursor the "caret" in some versions of Windows? It looks nothing like a circumflex....

It seems that a text cursor is generally called caret, independent of its shape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caret_navigation

[Twinsen2000]

Hi guys,

thank you for your answers. I fixed the issue by resetting the password before virtualizing my Windows computer, so I can now log in without a password, but I got a black screen after logon and the keyboard is still not working. Please see also my update on the first post.

cheers
Twinsen

[socratis]

Please see also my update on the first post.

Please don't do that. You edited your original message, you changed the whole content, you mixed two different independent issues. The whole set of replies doesn't quite make sense anymore!

We like to observe the "One issue, one thread" rule, so please open a new thread, with an appropriate title.

I'll edit your 1st post to restore order in the universe...