Last night two optional updates got installed on Server 2008 R2, KB3068708 and KB3050265.  This morning, I pop open remote desktop from the machine in my office and connect to the main machine so I can do my morning maintenance on the guest running on the machine(Server 2003).  After doing this same routine for the last 5 years every workday, to my shock, I was able to do exactly one mouse click and then it would not take any other keyboard nor mouse responses.

Since my Windows 8.1 machine also got upgrades, I went to the other building, unlocked the server room, turned on the monitor, logged in and tried local.  Still no go.  Tried full screen, still no go.  Looked up every keyboard shortcut possible(since it says "keyboard input captured" at the bottom but "mouse input not captured").  Nothing, no gd response what-so-ever.  I reboot the machine, I shut down the guest and start it back up, nothing.  I know the vm is running because I can watch all the activity on the screen(including a helpful POS hacker doing a dictionary attack versus our SMTP server that I'd really like to block, but, of course, can't, because I can't type a damned thing).

I go through the list of windows updates installed, I uninstall both of them.  Do all the rebooting.  Same thing.

I go through every menu option I can think of, I do every search I can think of.  The fixes people indicate for mouse is all sorts of things to do with the keyboard in the guest, which I can't do because it's not responding.  You know, like, going to Action->Insert Integration Services Disk.  But that comes up with a prompt to continue to upgrade or repair, which...requires keyboard or mouse interaction with the guest.

Finally get a little brainstorm when I see Clipboard->Type Clipboard Text.  I open up notepad, copy a space, and am successfully able to click OK and then OK again after it says it's complete.  I send a shutdown message, reboot it, still no keyboard nor mouse.  Reboot the whole machine, still no keyboard and mouse.

I'm now 4 hours into this and at a complete loss as to what I can do to fix it.  If this crap got broken by the two windows updates, why the blankety-blank didn't it get fixed by uninstalling them?  Neither of those updates indicated they dealt with hyper-v, so why would they create this disaster anyway?

If I had the ability to do a windows+run from clipboard->type clipboard text, I could potentially work my way into uninstalling the services and reinstalling them(or using msconfig and doing the redetect hal thing that one person did when their mouse stopped working).  But, I can't even get a tab to go over, much less alt+home or arrow keys.

Or, alternatively, is there any way to connect to a guest VM from a remote machine that doesn't involve turning remote desktop on in the guest?  That way I can test to see if it's just the host that's screwy.

Try connecting to services remotely (w/o rdp) and check that status of the Hyper-V Services and the Human Interface Device Access Service.

Or, copy the VHD of the guest to another Hyper-V host, even on Windows 8, and create a new virtual machine with it.

I've been working for the last hour trying to do so.  Just finished getting Hyper-V features added to my single windows 8.1 pro machine I have here.  We have no other machines here that can run Hyper-V.  Working with HVRemote script right now trying to get it to connect but haven't had any success.

I'm not understanding how that would correct the issue with the server.  I copy the VHD to Windows 8.1, I create a new VM and attach it to the VHD.  So, I might be able to start it on my Windows 8.1 machine. Is this just a test to see if the drivers are screwed up on the VHD or on the server?

Human Interface Device Access: Started

Hyper-V Image Management Service: Started

Hyper-V Networking Management Service: Started

Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management: Started

Having zero success with trying to connect remotely with vmconnect from 8.1 Pro.  I've used HVRemote on the server to add the 8.1 user, ran /firewallhypermgmt(which made me then reenable my firewall before it could do it's stuff).  Rebooted(which I hate because the VM *IS* running, we've got thousands of people connecting to it, so I just killed off all of them during the reboot, I can't keep doing this without our support phones ringing off the hook), ran /anondcom and /firewallhypervclient on the 8.1 machine, rebooted the 8.1 machine.  Still getting "You do not have the required permission to complete this task" when trying to connect.

"Is this just a test to see if the drivers are screwed up on the VHD or on the server?"

Yes

Still working on trying to export my VM.  When I tried to export it this morning when I got in, found out that I only had 10 gigs of drive space left due to snapshots over the last 5 years.  Had to keep the server offline for an hour and 45 minutes for them to merge together.  380 some odd support calls during this I had to get it back up.  I made another snapshot and tried to export it, but it didn't save a damned thing.  Tried shutting it down again so I could export it, it took 83 seconds to get 1% complete and the phones were ringing again.  As a business, can't afford to be down.  So now trying to figure out how to export a live VM with 2008R2 so I can attempt to run it on my 8.1 Pro machine.

Don't bother exporting it.  Simply copy the VHD and create a new VM on a different platform.  That will tell you if the VHD is good.  That's the important part.

Yes, that will require having no snapshots.  Should not be using snapshots in production anyway.  But it sounds like you have cleared all that up.

Copied the VHD to an external drive, copied it to my 8.1 Pro, made a new VM and attached the drive.  It started up, ran chkdsk for a long time correcting hundreds of things(I assume as a result of the live copy) and came up to install drivers for everything.  I could use my mouse and keyboard just fine with the 8.1 Pro machine.

So there's nothing wrong with the guest vhd...how do I fix the host?

The Windows 8.1 hypervisor is newer so it probably updated all the device drivers on boot and fixed the issue automatically.  Won't help you at your old host since its older (Server 2008R2?).

I think you need to figure out a way of either updating the integration or removing the suspected corrupted drivers (mouse/keyboard/hid) while running on your old host.  Since you can cut/paste maybe the command line or powershell can do it?  Maybe:

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.php

http://csharpening.net/?p=1052

http://blogs.technet.com/b/wincat/archive/2012/09/06/device-management-powershell-cmdlets-sample-an-introduction.aspx

I used the copy from clipboard so when I used the insert integration disk I could get it to reinstall by effectively hitting the space bar on the default 'ok' button.  Nifty trick, but how does one do a win+r to load up Run or do tab/alt/arrow keys from the clipboard?  I've never heard of anything like that.

By using my trick I've tried updating the integration services three or four times now without any improvement.  I assume I need to uninstall first(which goes back to the "how do I send those keystrokes or mouse clicks over?").  One of the tricks I read from people who are having mouse problems is loading up MSConfig and clicking "Detect HAL" under Boot Advanced Options.  Same chicken and egg scenario though, can't fix the keyboard and mouse without using at least one of the two.

I looked at http://csharpening.net/?p=1052 , but from powershell, I get nothing from the Get-Command and "Get-VMIntegrationService is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, fuction, script file, or operable program".  Is it not valid for 2008R2?

Maybe this weekend I can come in and do a Turn Off rather than Shutdown to trigger chkdsk to run on the guest.  If there was some corruption in one of the drivers(perhaps the reboot for windows update didn't properly shut down?).   I might try to also create an ISO that has an autorun.inf to launch something.  I'm unsure if that technique would work though. Before I try any of that, I want to do a system restore on the host.  I know I've uninstalled the updates, but the uninstall might have missed some bits.  It's just frustrating that we're such a small company and don't have the resources to have multiple machines to just drop it out of being live.

Hmmm..I see your point with notepad.  Will it respond to F8 on startup to get into safe mode?

Can you remote into the guest or access its management: (%SystemRoot%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s /computer:GUESTNAME) to see the event log or service status?

Were any updates done on the guest?

Note that the updates may not have anything to do with it - it may be an issue that was just awaiting a reboot.  Any backups to roll back to?

PS: I know this doesn't help but I would never install any "optional" updates on my servers unless I know I needed them and tested first, never automatically.

This morning I tried the F8 thing.  F8 actually got it to bring up the menu to select between, but I couldn't arrow up or down nor hit enter to make a selection.  It's just like I'd mentioned earlier, I basically get one keyboard key or mouse click after reboot then nothing.  Unfortunately the "Alt" part of "Alt-Home" counted as my one. :/

No updates done on the guest that I'm aware of, can't access the management as it's a webserver and we have everything locked down.  One of those "if we can get to it remotely, someone else can too" security philosophy.  There's no backup of the host, the hyper-v folder gets a robocopy onto an external drive.

I think my plan of attack this weekend(our customers are mostly mon-fri people, there's limited Sat activity which tends to be over around 3pm or so) would be this:

1) Try doing a system restore to Tuesday

2) Try changing some of the settings for the VM to try and trigger a HAL detect

3) Try doing a turn off rather than shut down to trigger a chkdsk

4) Create a new VM and point it to the same VHD to try and trigger a HAL detect

5) Create an iso that has an autorun.inf that starts up cmd so I can then use "clipboard->Paste clipboard text" to try and do other things.

I'll post here if I come up with a resolution in case someone else runs into the same problem.

I'm infinitely in your debt for all the suggestions you've made so far.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Hi Sir,

On 2008R2 hyper-v host , the keyboard/mouse still can't be captured locally ?

Best regards,

Elton Ji