WTF have I DONE?

Dropped a grenade in XP, it seems. Now, I've had this before, but I
can't recall how to get out of it. It's to do with typing: I can type
in native Windows apps (Word, notepad) as normal, but Agent will only
recognise alphanumerics (no return, backspace, delete etc) and I can't
enter text into, for example, the google search box and it certainly
won't let me enter a url into Firefox. I can get text into IE's
address bar, but no spacebar or other functions.

Also, Windows Desktop Search keeps opening, unbidden.

I've removed Agent pro tem (as the first program that showed a fault)
and I've performed two System Restores, back a day and a week
respectively.

AVG checks the whole machine every day and reports nothing and I'm
up-to-date with Spybot and Ad-Aware checks: again, nothing to report.


If anybody can understand my problem (well, this one, at least) and
offer a solution, it'll be virtual beers all round. FFS, save me the
agony of rebuilding my five-year-old XP Pro installation.

 

Indeed. Desktop search hotkey appears to be windows-shift-f by default.

 

You've tried a different keyboard presumably - simple things first etc.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Angle Grinder.

 

Yup. No difference: still playing the daft lad.

 

Thought of that, but no joy.

I just pulled a whole new trick - out of nowhere, up popped the start
menu and an Agent dialog box asking if I wanted to mark all messages
read - this accompanied by a rapidly repeated note, damned thing
sounded like a doorbell. Got rid of that and an open Excel
spreadsheet started doorbelling, accompanied by two simultaneous lines
of letters (asasasasasasasasas ... ) writing themselves across the
sheet in rows 1 and 7. Stopped that (after boggling a bit) by hitting
the spacebar and then closing (and not saving changes) the
spreadsheet.

I'm fucked, I think it's haunted.

 

have you got one of those doohickeys that convert PS/2 to USB or vice
versa?

maybe your {whichever one you are using} channel is fucked. Try the other
one.

I managed to introduce a random "fault" to my 3 year old box when fitting a
new mouse. It came with a PS/2 adapter so I saw an opportunity to free up a
USB slot. It seems the bios was monitoring that PS/2 channel for a wake-up
call. I became a little pissed off with the machine waking up again after I
had gone to bed, until the penny dropped.

 

Power down. Unplug. Have a cuppa

Plug it in *without* keyboard.

Same issue?



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"Keyboard not detected. Press F1 to continue."

 

The keyboard is a straightforward straight-into-the-USB type and I've
tried changing slots, to no avail. I've also tried reloading the
(Windows) drivers, to no effect. Now I've plugged in an old PS/2
keyboard straight into the appropriate connector and that doesn't work
at all - the NumLock light doesn't illuminate, even.

Oddities: the original USB keyboard seemed to have all the function
keys disabled: not just the Fx keys, but anything that does stuff -
but the letter keys worked. Then the letter keys disabled themselves
except when they wanted to stick on and I'd get a never-ending row of
alternating asasasas .... It doesn't want to do anything at all now,
neither does the PS/2 board.

It must be a software problem, that won't sort with a System Restore -
but where do I look? Nothing is showing as a problem anywhere.

 

That or your I/O controller's up the swanee. Are all your other
USB devices working correctly?

 

Could it be the keyboard controller on the motherboard ?

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

As you suggest, checking if the PS/2 port is disabled would be a good
starting point. I was just thinking what it might be if the port wasn't
found to be disabled.

Driver issues, don't you just love them. The PC equivalent of "shit in
the carbs".


--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

It appears not. A couple of reboots later and a bit of fiddling
around and I have full functionality restored. The PC just didn't
recognise the connection to start with, I assume - but it's "installed
new hardware" now and all is well.

Saitek Eclipse. It wasn't just the function keys, it was all keys
that perform a function (rather than producing a letter, iyswim) such
as spacebar, return, delete or backspace.

I assume it was well-intentioned and therefore not ridiculous - but
I'm running XP Pro because it does what I need it to do and I know
there'll be problems with Vista - let alone Linuxing the thing.

Cheers.

 

Strangely, yes, they are. Looks like a keyboard issue after all.

 

Keyboard controller in the keyboard, perhaps. Could be that the
sprayed coffee has finally got to it ;-)

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Pip

Thing about a Linux Live CD / DVD is that you can boot the machine from
it without touching the Windows install on the HDD.

Fucking handy for eliminating hardware issues (amongst other stuff), is
that.

Worth downloading and burning an image "just in case". Jim's was a good
call.

 

Without using the keyboard *at all*? This also precluded doing
anything with the BIOS, of course.

I'm not violently against *nix per se, but I don't want to try to run
it as a full-on OS as all the required man pages reads and configs
would bring out my inner geek and thus remove me further from ever
getting a life.

I'll grab one. Recs?

 

Don't do it - you'll only end up with an 's' key that only generates
'$', & you've had enough grief with fucked keyboard$ a$ it i$.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Pip

Yep. Set the machine up to boot from the CD / DVD first, then the HDD.

You need to do that before the KB's fucked, of course... ;^)

Christ no, this is an "emergencies only" thing. No anorak required. In
this case, boot it up and try to log on. If the keyboard is still doing
weird stuff, it's hardware, right?

I'm out of date[1]. Seventeen evangelists will be along directly to
confuse the **** out of you.

I think my DVD is Linux Mint, but it's buried deep in a huge pile over
----> there. Let me know if you need me to check.

[1] No change there, then.