A quick blog post to keep this site alive. LOL.
On an ancient computer we have attached to a TV, we had an issue, and I managed to get it into a reboot loop where it would try to go to repair mode, with “Automatic Repair” on the screen and the options “Restore” and “Cancel” (or something… I really should have written it down). Which is great, HOWEVER, neither my keyboard or mouse were able to select either of the two options on the screen. I tried a variety of keyboards, USB ports, and more.
Anyway, my searches on Google turned up some threads of people with similar issues.
After much trial and error, I disabled everything I could in the BIOS. And it worked! I was able to access the advanced repair options, including eventually getting into Safe Mode, where fortunately, I had a System Restore point that actually worked.
I think the most likely culprit was switching from the dedicated GPU to the IGP from the motherboard. Though, to be fair, I don’t really know. I also disabled on board audio, NIC, etc.