Keyboard doesn't work 1

[jade1001]

Fellow Geeks,

Every 10th reboot my keyboard quits working in XP. The Keyboard works fine in the BIOS. When I say quit working I mean I can't Control Alt Delete to log in. I hit num lock and it doesn't light up. My mouse works fine though. I hit the reset button and can arrow down to my Linux partition with my keyboard and the keyboard works fine in Linux. Just in XP it does not work.

I thought this was a me thing. So I had a friend demo XP. He dual booted to XP and guess what -- he has no keyboard at all. About every 10th reboot he will have one where I would not have one. When he boots into Win2k he always has a keyboard where in XP he does not just as I when I boot into Linux. He has the same mobo as I with similar specs except he has a bit less ram and a better video card.

Nothing is in our event logs. No errors. No IRQ conflicts. No nothing. We can't figure it out. He said doing Windows Updates can be a two week process with having to reboot numerous times to get a keyboard. We even swapped keyboard seeing if we would get a different reboot combo. He tried mine and I his. No luck. We tried natural keyboards, AT gender bended keyboards, straight keyboards, and even our servers keyboard. We went from generic keyboards to name brand ones and it didn't care. It is apparently not keyboard specific. He formatted off XP cause he said no keyboard is just unacceptable.

However, I have not formatted it off yet. I work techsupport and must learn it because I must provide support for new users that come in with this OS and am still trying to figure this problem out. But I do agree with my friend. I will probably not put XP on my production machine because no keyboard is literally unacceptable.

Below are my specs:

MSI 694X mobo
2 Intel Pentium III, 1 GHz pc133 processors
896 Megs of SDRAM unbuffered pc133
1 Western Digital 7200 RPM EIDE HD
1 Plexwriter
1 ATI Rage 128 Pro 8 megs video card
Onboard audio
3C905B-TX network card
ps/2 keyboard
USB mouse

If anyone has had this problem or have any suggestions I am all ears and am willing to try them.

Thanks in advanced,
jade>:O>

 

[linney]

Have you got the latest ps/2 and keyboard drivers. Are you just experimenting with XP or intending to use it. XP is a bit different from some of the windows systems meaning you might have to update drivers and the bios. What did the compatibility wizard say when you installed XP?

 

[jade1001]

The compatibility wizard didn't say anything when I installed XP. We checked Microsoft's website anyway.

Everything was compatible except my RAID controller. I did Windows updates and it found a driver for my RAID controller.

I use a generic keyboard. I've had this keyboard for years. The letters are worn off the buttons and such. It is an AT keyboard but I use a gender bender to make it a ps/2.

I've tried different keyboards though. I work techsupport for my university part time. So I have lots of keyboards to experiment with. All do the same. XP apparently doesn't care.

I suspected it might be a driver thing. But when installing my brother's Microsoft natural Keyboard and using the disc that came with it, it did the same thing as well.

This board is running the latest BIOS rev. Windows updates updated my network card driver. I installed the latest ATI video card driver since I lost my disc and just went to ATI's website for their latest. It is running the latest 4in1 Via hardware drivers.

If anyone has any advice or things I should try let me know

Thanks,
jade>:O>

 

[linney]

How does your keyboard perform in Safe Mode?


How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP (Q310560)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/5/60.asp

This is a hard one and I wish you good luck. I feel it will turn out to be a compatibility problem. You could try a hardware forum such as -

http://www.pcguide.com

 

[jade1001]

Linney,

Couldn't get to safe mode. As soon as we chose to boot to XP, there would be no keyboard making it difficult to F8.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions,
jade>:O>

 

[linney]

Came across this and thought of you. Have a read of it and see if any of the fixes help you.

No Mouse/Keyboard After Updating Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro Drivers (Q257729)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q257/7/29.asp

 

[jade1001]

Thanks Linney, I'll give that a shot
jade>:O>

 

[jade1001]

Hi

Ok, I think I have some what figured this problem out -- well sort of. I don't think it is a driver issue -- well, maybe it is. Windows XP doesn't seem to care. The missing keyboard problem still occurs 9 out of 10 reboots. What I have found is if I have my mouse (this makes totally zero sense) on my USB port then I have no keyboard 9 out of 10 reboots. If I have my mouse on PS/2 then I have no keyboard 1 out 10 reboots.

Every machine I have is like this. I have a Dell at work with one of their mobo's installed probably intel chipset (haven't really cared to look), a Tyan Tiger 230 board at home, an Asus board, and an MSI board. All three do the exact same thing. I have found USB to PS/2 gender benders for all of my mices.

This makes no sense to me. Can someone help me understand why this is happening in XP? Is this a bug? Does anyone else have this problem too? I wonder if this is by design. If so, why are there USB mices and trackballs?

Thanks,
jade>:O>

 

[John503]

When my keyboard locks on startup where I have to put in my password. I use the mouse to click on Start,Turnoff. That leaves me with three options( reboot, turnoff and standby) I click on standby and then bring it out of standby. My keyboard then works.

I hope this works for you!

This is not a solution for the problem but it is easier then rebooting the whole machine!

 

[NucomMat]

"This makes no sense to me. Can someone help me understand why this is happening in XP? Is this a bug? Does anyone else have this problem too? I wonder if this is by design. If so, why are there USB mices and trackballs?"


There are USB mice and trackballs the same reason there are USB keyboards...there is no good reason for either. Both of the PS/2 ports that are on the board are still taking up the same resources even if a KB or mouse is not present. Use the PS/2 KB and mouse.

-Mat

 

[bullhlms]

John503, Thanks for a good clue "I click on standby and then bring it out of standby. My keyboard then works." I feel it confirms my suspicion that load order is important. If anybody knows what is loaded (or how I can find out) when emerging from standby, I think we can find the culprit. Jade1001, why did you start another thread?

 

[Jesuspower]

I was having problems also, it turned out to be that the kb needed to be xp certified. try a USB kb -God Bless

 

[bullhlms]

Jesuspower et. al. I have a USB keyboard. I have found that four files are loaded exiting "standby":
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\usbccgp.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\hidusb.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\kbdhid.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\kmixer.sys

Examining "good" and "bad" bootlogs shows that usbccgp.sys has not been loaded when kbdhid.sys fails to load. The two logs were both created from re-starts, with NO system changes between.
Anybody have an idea why???

 

[bullhlms]

Problem solved? I think: The problem is a “manual” start of “usbccgp.sys” (Microsoft USB Generic Parent Driver). I changed the startup type in the registry to “auto” and have had 6 sequential successful restarts or coldstarts, and no failures (loss of keyboard). Specifically, I changed the value at
hklm/system/Controlset001/services/usbccgp/start from 3 to 2 (man to auto).
Pls let me know if this works (or doesn’t) for you. I have seen no adverse (or other) side effects. BTW if anyone is aware of a danger in this change, pls inform me. Thanks. Bllhlms@sbcglobal.net

 

[jade1001]

bullhlms,
I didn't start a new thread. I added on to someone elses.

All of this is very interesting. I am going to try this out this weekend on my XP partition. I think load order might have something to do with it. Maybe PS/2 has higher priority. Who knows. But I'm going to play.

JesusPower -
I've had my keyboard for almost 10 years. It is really an AT keyboard with an adapter. It has never failed me. The letters are worn off the buttons and all. It saved my life once. One day I decided to take my keyboard home to vacuum the crumbs out from between the buttons and on the way to my car someone attacked me. I managed to used my keyboard to fight them off and give my attacker a concusion Mortal Kombat style. Cops were impressed.

If I ever needed to edit my BIOS a USB keyboard wouldn't work in there anyway. I have an old board.

Thanks everyone,
jade>:O>

 

[bullhlms]

Jade1001, et al, Further testing shows my 11/12 "fix" is not 100%, but I have gotten much better results. I still believe the generic driver "usbccgp.sys" must be loaded before the keyboard can be, and that threaded loading makes it dicey.

 

[Jesuspower]

jade1001: sorry, I thought you had an newer board. But for a keyboard like that, I'd buy a glass case for it.

Anyway, I was almost certain that that would have solved the problem. -God Bless

 

[bullhlms]

Further observation indicates that usbccgp.sys will not load if the (USB) keyboard is not detected. It may be a timing thing where the keyboard has to respond within a limited amt. of time and sometimes doesn't. Perhaps a different USB keyboard would respond faster. (Mine was supplied by Compaq with the computer.) Tried loading usbccgp.sys with the cmd "sc start usbccgp", and got an error msg indicating no one was home, so it wouldn't load. Unplugging/plugging keyboard didn't work. Am using a PS2 keyboard to type this. Good luck, and thanks for help all. I'm out of ideas.

 

[bullhlms]

Likely solution: (My keyboard has worked oerfectly for about two weeks, so I cannot verify, but I installed the files and it didn't bomb.)
The following is from another thread re: USB scanner;

"piaff1 (TechnicalUser) Dec 3, 2002
Since posting the question about Canon USB2 Scanner and USB2 support I have found the answer which may be useful to anyone else with this problem. If you are running Windows XP and have an AMD motherboard with Via chipset the problem occurs because of a power fluctuation when turning on any other USB device. To correct this I was advised by Canon tech support to go to viaarena.com and download and install 4 in 1 driver for AMD. I have done this and now my scanner is working perfectly."

I welcome any feedback.