I purchased an AV cable with S-video at Radio Shack and tried it out on a Radeon 9200 hooked up to a TV. I had a problem receiving an image on the TV so I consulted the Windows Help file and it recommended that I remove Adobe Type Manager. I didn't have Type Manager, but I had Download Manager and I hadn't used it in 2 years apparently, so I decided to just get rid of it. I also changed some display settings and the TV finally displayed my desktop, so I have no idea if deleting Adobe Download Manager had something to do with it or not. The main reason I wanted to get the cable was to play NES roms (of which I own the respective cartridges in my home) on the big screen. So I load up an emulator (FCEU Ultra) and Ninja Gaiden, and convert to full screen. The rom began running very slowly and lagged heavily, and I tried to exit from full screen mode but in the end had to resort to restarting my computer. The computer booted and BIOS gave me a keyboard error, something to the effect of: "Keyboard Device not detected". However, I was able to press F1 to continue booting XP. When Windows boots up, I realize that my keyboard stopped working. So, I first turn to system restore. Didn't work. I can't trace the exact model number of my keyboard, but I know that the brand is HP so I download 3 different drivers from them and none of them worked: sp24006.exe, sp26752.exe and sp26411.exe. One had installed and prompted for a restart, but after this request I never heard from the program again, and the keyboard still didn't work. The other 2 didn't install due to errors; one was: "Your system does not meet the minimum requirements for this update. Update has been cancelled (9998)." Hard to believe for me, but then I read online that that file specifically requires the orginal keyboard drivers for the update. So I downloaded the original keyboard drivers from HP. Some error occurs, something about not being able to find the file CPEKbupdate_681002.exe to execute. So I start to lose faith in HP's website and start to look at Microsoft's site to try and find any sort of standard keyboard driver which can recognize a keyboard. I end up finding one and installing it, but it doesn't work on the HP keyboard. I've looked through device manager, and saw that no keyboard was being recognized in the device list. Also, in the keyboard menu in the control panel, no hardware is installed either. I have an HP keyboard plugged into another computer, so I look at the device drivers for it, send them to my broken computer and place them in the proper folders (the device drivers included "C:\windows\system32\drivers\ps2.sys" and "C:\windows\system32\ps2.bat", yes this is a PS/2 keyboard I'm trying to get to work, should've mentioned that earlier.) I restarted, and it still doesn't work. I found out that the device manager describes the keyboard as a HP PS2 Keyboard (2K-3). I cleaned out the contacts on the PS/2 serial connector to make sure it wasn't a hygiene issue, and I've tried different keyboards. I know that one of my solutions would be to purchase a USB keyboard, as it would come with a CD with the proper drivers, but I'd rather spend my money on something else if I can actually find a free solution to this problem. It seems like it's so easy to fix but it's actually the biggest problem I've had with a computer in a long time. In light of the holiday season, is there anyone who can offer a suggestions I haven't tried yet.. I appreciate it.
Derubis