New
#1
Strange Keyboard Issue
I have an old wired MS Natural Keyboard that I love (multiple carpal tunnel surgeries). It has worked flawlessly for many years. I leave my PC on 24/7 as I am part of a cooperative weather reporting network and I automatically upload the information from my weather station every 10 minutes. I usually reboot only after having some kind of issue or install an upgrade that requires it. A couple of months ago, I started having a strange, random issue with the keyboard after using Fast User Switching to move between users on my Home Premium x64 Dell desktop system.
If I need to switch between users more than just a few times, suddenly most, but not all, of the keys on my keyboard stop functioning when I get to the User Login Screen. The mouse works, but only the Enter, Tab & Esc keys work. I don't get any kind of error or notification and there's nothing in the system logs. I've tried pressing all the other keys both one at a time and in known combinations like Ctl-Alt-Del to see if I get any response, but only these 3 keys do anything. The only way I can get back normal keyboard function is to use the mouse to Restart the PC. I can use the Accessibility Function to bring up the on screen keyboard and use the mouse to enter the User Password and complete a login, but the keyboard issue is still there until the PC is rebooted.
Over the last few weeks, I've searched for an answer, but haven't found one. I suspect this is due to a OS patch or software install. I do daily restore points, but since I don't know exactly when it began, there's no way to know where to restore to. I have a system repair disk that was made recently, but I have no way of knowing if it's before or after the event that triggered this strange keyboard issue.
Has anyone else seen this issue recently ? I'm pretty knowledgeable of Windows 7, but I'm no expert. I'm open to suggestions.