G
Guest
I have a number of PCs running WinXp Pro, on several LANs, different models.
Recently a number of these machines have started to exhibit "keyboard
freezing", sporadically (once per week), despite having been reliable for a
couple of years. All these machines are strongly secured, and users do not
have administrative access, so user tampering or installation of software is
not possible. The machines are virus-clean. I am wondering if a possible
hotfix delivered by windows update might be the cause, as it would explain
the fact that the problem began at around the same time at different
unconnected sites.
I personally saw the problem while working hands-on at one particular
machine. While typing in some everyday application, I noticed that all apps
seemed not to be reacting to keystrokes. The machine was not hung, was not
thrashing (taskmgr showed no thrashing processes), was not showing egg-timer,
and mouse pointer moved around as usual. Apps reacted to mouse clicks, and
using the mouse, I fired up device manager, and did an uninstall/reinstall on
the keyboard device (a normal PS2 keyboard), which cured the problem
immediately. So it was as if the keyboard suddenly wasn't there or was out of
communication with the device driver, although I ought to point out that
device manager did not show the keyboard as having disappeared from the
hardware tree. My first thought was that the keyboard cable had physically
fallen out, but that wasn't the case.
My next step will be to review the Windows Update history and possibly try
rolling a machine back a month or so using System Restore, on an experimental
basis. But given the low frequency of these mysterious events it will be hard
to get an immediate picture of whether things have changed.
Any suggestions?
Recently a number of these machines have started to exhibit "keyboard
freezing", sporadically (once per week), despite having been reliable for a
couple of years. All these machines are strongly secured, and users do not
have administrative access, so user tampering or installation of software is
not possible. The machines are virus-clean. I am wondering if a possible
hotfix delivered by windows update might be the cause, as it would explain
the fact that the problem began at around the same time at different
unconnected sites.
I personally saw the problem while working hands-on at one particular
machine. While typing in some everyday application, I noticed that all apps
seemed not to be reacting to keystrokes. The machine was not hung, was not
thrashing (taskmgr showed no thrashing processes), was not showing egg-timer,
and mouse pointer moved around as usual. Apps reacted to mouse clicks, and
using the mouse, I fired up device manager, and did an uninstall/reinstall on
the keyboard device (a normal PS2 keyboard), which cured the problem
immediately. So it was as if the keyboard suddenly wasn't there or was out of
communication with the device driver, although I ought to point out that
device manager did not show the keyboard as having disappeared from the
hardware tree. My first thought was that the keyboard cable had physically
fallen out, but that wasn't the case.
My next step will be to review the Windows Update history and possibly try
rolling a machine back a month or so using System Restore, on an experimental
basis. But given the low frequency of these mysterious events it will be hard
to get an immediate picture of whether things have changed.
Any suggestions?