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I am attempting my first ever PC build. I have definitely learnt a lot and I am now up to installing an OS.

I purchased a Windows 10 USB (rookie mistake, I know) and when I begin the installation process, literally after BIOS, the screen appears to freeze. I can navigate through BIOS just fine but I cannot get past Windows Setup as shown here:

enter image description here

So the mouse will just not move and attempting to navigate using the keyboard does not work.

I have my HDMI connected to the GPU, the GPU is all lit up and the fans are working. I have turned off integrated graphics but also tried with them on and plugged into the mobo, the same issue occurs. I have tried changing the USB slots of my mouse and keyboard.

Specs:

  • CPU - i7 9700k
  • MOBO - Gigabyte Aorus z390 pro wifi
  • GPU - 2080 MSI Gaming X Trio
  • RAM - trident Z 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • PSU - EVGA 850W 80+Gold

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

My USB configuration settings are: Legacy USB support - Enabled, XHCI Hand-Off - Enabled EHCI Hand-Off - Enabled USB Mass Storage Driver Support - Enabled Port 60/64 Emulation - Enabled.

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    What are you USB settings set to within the firmware? Be as specific as possible. The system is not frozen, this is a case, where your USB input devices are not being detected.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 11:15
  • So my USB configuration under peripherals are set as: Legacy USB support - Enabled, XHCI Hand-Off - Disabled, EHCI Hand-Off - Disabled, USB Mass Storage Driver Support - Enabled, Port 60/64 Emulation - Disabled. Please do let me know if there's another piece of information you need.
    – NorthWinter
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 11:29
  • Which USB ports are you using? Try not to use your USB 3.0 ports.
    – Seth
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 11:29
  • @Seth - Windows supports being installed from a USB 3.0 device. The use of a USB 3.0 devices is not the problem here. Some devices don't even have USB 2.0 ports, so the author might not have a choice in the matter, granted most mice and keyboards are not even USB 2.0 devices.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 11:31
  • @Ramhound he does. 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports on the back 3 USB 3.1 Gen 1, 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2. I'm not sure how USB storage devices are presented but I've had situations where Windows was missing USB 3.0 drivers so devices connected to the USB 3.0 ports were unavailable. Shouldn't be as much of an issue with Windows 10. If the installation environment does support full USB 3.0 there shouldn't be any reason to enable all the fallback/legacy USB options in the BIOS. XHCI Hand-off might be different from what you expect (page 38 in the manual).
    – Seth
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 11:51

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I purchased a Windows 10 USB (rookie mistake, I know) and when I begin the installation process, literally after BIOS, the screen appears to freeze. So the mouse will just not move and attempting to navigate using the keyboard does not work.

Your screen is not frozen. Given you have both XHCI Hand-off and EHCI Hand-off disabled, the Windows installation environment, is unaware of your USB devices. You need to enable both XHCI Hand-off and EHCI Hand-off in order to solve your problem. You should also enable Port 60/40 Emulation since that deals with the emulation of a PS/2 keyboard and mouse.

The reason the keyboard and mouse do not work is due to the fact, XHCI handles USB 3.0 support, and EHCI handles USB 2.0 support. This means you effectively have no input devices that can be detected by WinPE.

The OHCI and UHCI controllers support only USB 1 speed devices (1.5 Mbit/s and 12 Mbit/s), and the EHCI only supports USB 2 devices (480 Mbit/s). The xHCI architecture was designed to support all USB speeds, including SuperSpeed (5 Gbit/s) and future speeds, under a single driver stack.

Extensible Host Controller Interface

With these features off you are allowing the firmware to handle their support. Which would be the reason these devices worked when you were modifying the firmware settings but ceased to function within the WinPE.

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  • Hey, thank you for your help, it did make a difference as I can now progress further up to the windows key request however it then starts again rather oddly. Am I missing something else?
    – NorthWinter
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 11:48
  • @RJackson - "it then starts again rather oddly" - Is a description of a problem that I can work with.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 15:45
  • So basically, I can progress further to the windows key request however the mouse and keyboard stop working, again. The flashing line that indicates where you can type freezes solid.
    – NorthWinter
    Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 16:24

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