[egobirchy]

Hi,

A bit of a vague question, but hopefully someone may be able to help. My sister has an Evesham custom built laptop, running XP. Her young son had a bit of a "play" and it seems the keyboard is 'locked' in some way. I'm not with her, so can't give very good details, but she knows the difference between this situation and a crash. She must have been able to reboot, but clearly the keyboard is still in a disabled state once rebooted.

My hunch is that there's some kind of hotkey or function that occurs when you hold down shift for 7 seconds or something.

Any ideas welcomed.

Thanks

Edit, its not the 'filter keys' thing that's her problem, I don't think - though I just royally buggered up my own computer in trying to replicate the problem (I totally don't see how filter keys could ever be useful)

Edited by egobirchy, 20 January 2006 - 01:52 PM.

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if she boots into safe mode does it still happen?

[dsenette]

if she boots into safe mode does it still happen?

[egobirchy]

Unhelpfully, I don't know. Lets say it works okay in safe mode...what can she do whilst there to sort it in normal mode?

[dsenette]

possibly a system restore to a date before the youngin got ahold of the machine...also..if she would prefer to try this first...if she presses f8 during boot up (which is how you get to safe mode)...she could choose the last known good configuration option...which may solve it without the restore

[egobirchy]

Ok, yeah, system restore a reasonable plan. Sorry this is well tricky, passing on advice to a 3rd party. One last question, before I take up too much of your time. Does a system restore jeopardise her recently saved files? Or is it just newly installed apps that might be wiped? Or both?

Cheers

[dsenette]

system restore just restores the system...any documents she's saved should be fine...however...if she restores to a date before the install of some software...then that software goes out the window...which is why it would be better to try the last known good option first.

[egobirchy]

ok, i'll confess 'last known good option' option is one i've not heard before.

Is that where the computer goes back to a point immediately after the last piece of software was installed?

[dsenette]

it goes to the last configuration profile that it conciders good...which usually is the configuration profile that was saved before the one that is currently being used

[egobirchy]

Cheers again. Right, I've been in touch with her, she can't even boot into safe mode coz the laptop doesn't recognise any keys...hence the f8 press doesn't work

I'll be amazed if you can find a solution to that!!!!
She's going to get Evesham support onto it tomorrow unless anyone has a moment of genius tonight. Its a challenge for you..."resolve this without using a single key!"

[dsenette]

two options...some laptops have ps/2 connectors in the back...in which case she could try a normal keyboard....or a usb keyboard (though...since the keyboard won't work before booting into the os...it's very likely that the gremlin physically broke the keyboard)