Windows 11 Freezes at Login Screen: Keyboard and Mouse Not Working

Windows 11 login screen freezing is a problem that catches you completely off guard. The lock screen loads, the background appears, maybe even the clock shows — but when you go to type your password, nothing happens. The keyboard is dead. The mouse won’t move. You’re locked out of your own computer.

This guide covers every practical fix, in order, so you can get past the frozen login screen and back into Windows without losing your data.

Why Does Windows 11 Freeze at the Login Screen?

Understanding the cause helps you pick the right fix faster. The most common reasons this happens are:

A Windows Update that broke USB or input driver support
Fast Startup loading a corrupted hibernation file
A conflict between the lock screen and a third-party security or accessibility app
Bluetooth or USB controller driver failure
The system running out of resources before the login screen fully loads
A corrupted user profile or credential provider

The tricky part is that you can’t log in to diagnose the problem — so most fixes need to be done from outside the normal Windows environment.

Before You Start: Try These Quick Checks

A few things are worth trying before going into advanced troubleshooting.

Wait 60 seconds. Sometimes Windows 11 takes longer than expected to initialize USB or Bluetooth input devices, especially after an update. Give it a full minute before assuming it’s frozen.

Try a different USB port. Plug the keyboard directly into a USB port on the back of your desktop, or try a different port on your laptop’s hub. Avoid USB hubs or docks for now.

Unplug everything except keyboard and mouse. Extra USB devices — drives, webcams, adapters — can sometimes interfere with input initialization at the login screen.

Try a wired keyboard if you use Bluetooth. Bluetooth input can fail before Windows fully initializes the stack. A basic wired USB keyboard usually works when wireless doesn’t.

Step 1: Force a Full Restart (Bypass Fast Startup)

Windows 11’s Fast Startup doesn’t do a true shutdown — it saves a system state and resumes from it. If that saved state is corrupted, the login screen can freeze every single time you boot.

A regular shutdown from the Start menu often doesn’t help because Fast Startup intercepts it. Instead:

Hold the Power button for 10 seconds to force a hard shutdown.
Wait 10 seconds, then power on again.
If the login screen freezes again, repeat the hard shutdown two more times.
On the third failed boot, Windows will automatically open Automatic Repair mode.

If the login screen works fine after a hard reset even once, Fast Startup is almost certainly the cause. See Step 4 to disable it permanently.

Step 2: Use On-Screen Keyboard as a Workaround

If your keyboard is frozen but the mouse still works — or works partially — you can use the built-in on-screen keyboard to type your password and get into Windows.

At the login screen, look for the Accessibility icon in the bottom-right corner (it looks like a person).
Click it and enable On-Screen Keyboard.
Click the password field, then use the on-screen keyboard to type your PIN or password.
Press Enter to log in.

Once you’re inside Windows, you can fix the input driver problem properly. This is the fastest way in if your mouse is responding but your physical keyboard isn’t.

Step 3: Boot Into Safe Mode

If you can’t get past the login screen at all, Safe Mode is your best diagnostic environment. It loads only essential drivers, which means frozen input devices often work fine there.

How to reach Safe Mode from a frozen login screen:

Hold the Power button for 10 seconds — force shutdown.
Power on. Force shutdown again when you see the Windows logo.
Do this 2–3 times until Automatic Repair launches.
Go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings.
Click Restart, then press 4 (or F4) to boot into Safe Mode.

In Safe Mode, your keyboard and mouse should respond normally. From here, you can apply driver fixes and configuration changes.

Step 4: Disable Fast Startup

Once you’re inside Windows — either through Safe Mode or the on-screen keyboard workaround — turn off Fast Startup. This is one of the most reliable fixes for login screen freezes.

Open Control Panel (search for it in the Start menu).
Go to Hardware and Sound → Power Options.
On the left, click Choose what the power buttons do.
Click Change settings that are currently unavailable.
Uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommended).
Click Save changes.

Restart your PC and check whether the login screen responds normally. Many users find this single change permanently solves the problem.

Step 5: Update or Reinstall USB and Input Drivers

A corrupted or outdated USB controller or HID (Human Interface Device) driver is a very common cause of keyboard and mouse failure specifically at the login screen.

To update drivers:

Open Device Manager (right-click Start → Device Manager).
Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Right-click each entry and select Update driver → Search automatically.
Also expand Human Interface Devices and update any keyboard or mouse entries there.
Restart your PC.

To reinstall a driver:

Right-click the device in Device Manager.
Choose Uninstall device.
Check the box to delete the driver software if prompted.
Restart — Windows will automatically reinstall a clean version of the driver.

If the freeze started right after a Windows Update, rolling back the USB controller driver (Device Manager → Properties → Driver tab → Roll Back Driver) is worth trying too.

Step 6: Uninstall the Problematic Windows Update

A bad Windows Update is one of the most frequently reported triggers for the login screen freeze issue. If your problem started immediately after an update, removing it is a direct fix.

From Automatic Repair mode:

Go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Uninstall Updates.
Choose Uninstall latest quality update first.
If that doesn’t help, try Uninstall latest feature update.
Restart and test the login screen.

You can also do this from inside Windows if you managed to get in:

Go to Settings → Windows Update → Update history.
Click Uninstall updates.
Remove the most recent update and restart.

Step 7: Run SFC and DISM to Repair System Files

Corrupted Windows system files can interfere with the credential provider — the component that handles your login screen. Running the built-in repair tools can fix this without reinstalling Windows.

Open Command Prompt as Administrator (or from Automatic Repair → Advanced options → Command Prompt) and run these in order:

sfc /scannow

Wait for it to finish, then run:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Let both complete fully — they can take 15–20 minutes. Restart when done and test the login screen again.

Step 8: Check and Repair the BCD (Boot Configuration Data)

If Windows 11 is having trouble initializing correctly before the login screen, a corrupted Boot Configuration Data file could be responsible. This is more common after sudden shutdowns or power outages.

From Automatic Repair → Advanced options → Command Prompt, run these commands one at a time:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Type Y and press Enter if asked to add Windows to the boot list. Then restart and see if the login screen responds.

Step 9: Create a New User Profile

Sometimes the problem isn’t Windows itself — it’s your specific user account or credential provider becoming corrupted. If you can get into Windows via Safe Mode, creating a new user account can bypass the issue entirely.

In Safe Mode, go to Settings → Accounts → Family & other users.
Click Add account under “Other users.”
Choose I don’t have this person’s sign-in information, then Add a user without a Microsoft account.
Create a username and password.
Restart into normal mode and log in with the new account.

If the login screen works fine with the new account, your original profile has a corruption issue. You can transfer your files over and continue working from the new profile.

Step 10: Perform a System Restore

If you had System Restore enabled and the problem started recently, rolling back to an earlier restore point can undo whatever caused the freeze.

From Automatic Repair, go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → System Restore.
Pick a restore point from before the login screen issue started.
Follow the prompts and let Windows restore.

System Restore doesn’t touch your personal files, but it will remove drivers and apps installed after the restore point date.

FAQ: Windows 11 Freezes at Login Screen

Q: Why does my keyboard work in BIOS but not at the Windows 11 login screen? BIOS uses its own basic input routines and doesn’t depend on Windows drivers. If your keyboard works in BIOS but not at the login screen, the problem is almost certainly a corrupted or incompatible Windows USB or HID driver, not a hardware failure.

Q: My mouse moves but I can’t click anything at the login screen. What’s wrong? This usually points to the credential provider — the component that manages the login interface — being stuck or crashed. Try pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete and see if a different screen appears. If it does, select Sign in from there instead of the lock screen.

Q: Will disabling Fast Startup slow down my PC? Slightly. Boot times may increase by a few seconds since Windows performs a full cold boot instead of resuming from a saved state. For most users, this tradeoff is worth it given how many issues Fast Startup can cause.

Q: Can antivirus software cause the login screen to freeze? Yes. Some third-party security tools install credential provider add-ons that load at the login screen. If they fail to initialize, the entire login screen can freeze. Removing or updating the antivirus software in Safe Mode often fixes it.

Q: The login screen freezes only sometimes, not every time. Why? Intermittent freezes usually point to a race condition — Windows sometimes initializes input drivers fast enough, and sometimes doesn’t. Fast Startup is a common cause of this inconsistency. Disabling it and updating USB drivers typically stops the random freezes.

Q: Is this a hardware problem or a software problem? In the vast majority of cases, it’s software — a driver issue, a corrupted update, or a Fast Startup conflict. If the freeze persists after a clean Windows reinstall, then hardware (a failing USB controller, for example) becomes a more likely explanation.

Final Thoughts

A Windows 11 login screen freeze with an unresponsive keyboard and mouse feels like a hard lock — but it’s almost always solvable without reinstalling the OS. Start with the simplest fixes: hard reset, different USB port, and disabling Fast Startup. If those don’t work, get into Safe Mode and address drivers or recent updates directly.

Work through the steps methodically and you’ll have your system back up and running without losing a single file.