Esxi free - VM does not respond to keyboard input

joshalmeida · 2016-12-19T17:15:34.000Z

I have a VM which was a P2V conversion that I was doing some cleanup work in, I noticed it had a Lenovo touchpad driver installed and since it is not needed on the VM I removed the driver. After the VM rebooted it no longer responds to ANY type of alt-ctrl-del command, either by using alt-ctrl-insert in vsphere or in the esxi web client. I also tried sending the command via Guest>VM>send alt-ctrl-del both form vsphere and the web client but it simply does not respond. Other VM’s on this host work fine.

I’m guessing removing that touchpad driver screwed something up but I can’t get into the OS to fix the problem. I can see the IP address of the VM but it won’t respond to ping and I can’t RDP into it so I’m out of luck there as well.

Any ideas?

harry1028 · 2016-12-19T17:20:30.000Z

Cold reboot it again and report back.

Ping might not work if the firewall is turned on.

RDP might not work if you didn’t configured it.

Rod-IT · 2016-12-19T17:22:19.000Z

Make sure you install the VMware tools and reboot it.

Is there a reason you P2V’d a laptop though?

joshalmeida · 2016-12-19T17:27:23.000Z

Rod-IT:

Make sure you install the VMware tools and reboot it.

Is there a reason you P2V’d a laptop though?

I wasn’t the one that P2V’d it but it was supposed to be a template machine for MDT. I’m better off just creating a new ref machine from scratch anyway which is why I’m not too worried if I can’t get this to respond.

Rebooted the client and host several times, removed/added various USB adapters but the thing just won’t respond.

adamdeich · 2016-12-19T17:27:53.000Z

I’m guessing the problem stems from a driver issue that probably isn’t active until the OS loads fully. Have you tried starting it in safe mode and seeing if the CTRL-Alt-Del works there?

joshalmeida · 2016-12-19T17:29:36.000Z

SwivelyChair:

I’m guessing the problem stems from a driver issue that probably isn’t active until the OS loads fully. Have you tried starting it in safe mode and seeing if the CTRL-Alt-Del works there?

Yeah, I can boot to safe mode but once I get to the login screen I still can’t send alt-ctrl-del (or insert)

Mouse works fine and the keyboard works in BIOS but not in windows.

It’s not a big deal, I’ll just build a new reference machine from scratch, it’s probably much cleaner anyway

adamdeich · 2016-12-19T17:34:59.000Z

Well, if you can get it to reboot with a live network connection you can always use PowerShell or PSTools from a remote computer to reinstall the specific lenovo driver (if you recall what it is and have a copy).

joshalmeida · 2016-12-19T17:35:53.000Z

SwivelyChair:

Well, if you can get it to reboot with a live network connection you can always use PowerShell or PSTools from a remote computer to reinstall the specific lenovo driver (if you recall what it is and have a copy).

Ok, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks