I came home from work yesterday to find that my computer had about twenty error messages showing. This happened once before when I left my keyboard down and Bertram the cat sat on it and made it very cranky.
So, I closed all of the messages and, here’s where I was stupid, I didn’t really pay any attention to what they said.
I shut down the computer. When I restarted, it took me through to where the Windows XP splash screen is, and there it stopped. It wouldn’t do anything else at that point, and the splash screen was very dark.
The only peculiarity is when I am in Safe Mode, the right shift key will not make the x upper case. The left shift key will allow me to make an upper case x, but the right one won’t. The right one will let me make the other keys upper case. I found this out while trying to type XP. With the right shift depressed, the x key does nothing. That strikes me as incredibly weird.
I can restart in Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Networking.
I’m using Windows XP Home. I know jack about the internal workings of computers.
Should I be doing “System Restore”? That’s what the troubleshooter seems to be suggesting.
Have you tried restarting with keyboard unplugged?
Or if that causes the system not to start, try starting with keyboard plugged in, but unplug it as soon as windows begins to load.
I know you kind of need a keyboard, but doing this might at least get you far enough to be presented with clues as to why it’s failing. Maybe a key is ‘stuck’ and is causing windows to hang - waiting for you to stop pressing the stuck key.
Unplug ALL devices (USB devices, keyboard etc) except the monitor and the mouse from the computer and let it restart. Let it grind through startup for at least 10 minutes. If the standard mode splash screen does not come up you may have an issue. I second the try a new keyboard suggestion.
If you got a CD with that keyboard (and can find it), try putting that in the tray and see if it will start while in safe mode. Sometimes the CDs will have a choice to Repair, but if not, just install the program again.
If after unplugging everything, if it will still not start, try borrowing a keyboard from a friend to see if that will let it boot. If so, there are a gazillion keyboards available, many of them very inexpensive.
Then, give the old keyboard to the cat to sit on whenever desired.
First of all if I was a cat and someone named me Bertram, I think I’d be seeking revenge on my owner 24/7 (Where’s Bertram’s pic?)
A system restore is obviously the easiest way unless for some reason you’d lose too much data.
It sounds like the cat hit a combo of keys that made an error. I am thinking it’s not the keyboard but rather the combo the cat hit.
Perhaps it tried to re-install a driver or something from a program you had running.
I have not worked with XP but Vista won’t let you undo a system restore done while in safe mode, but the fact you can go into Safe Mode seems to be a good thing in of itself.
If you don’t want to shut down your system, you may want to at least lock it when you walk away. Here is a Microsoft webpage that explains how to do so. (Of course you first need to get it working properly.)
Now I understand why I got access to your email and Paypal accounts. You know, js, you’ve really lead a most unusual life. I just loved your Tapestry album.
Switching keyboards has fixed it. Unfortunately, the one I switched to isn’t the ergonomic kind like the one Bertram sat on.
As for the cat pic, you can see by this one that he covers a lot of territory, and that not only was I mean enough to name him Bertram, I put sweaters on him, too!
Thanks for all of the help and the link to the programs that might help me avoid this in the future, all.
