Have you tried booting from a bootable CD (like your windows CD)and hitting F2?

no i have not,but i'll try that

i have the same problem, I can do anything I want with the mouse, include surf the net, until I press any key on the keyboard..Whether it's in a word doc, or trying to enter a password on the net. As soon as I hit a key, the whole computer locks up tight. Even cntrl alt delete does nothing. I have to hard boot it, then it's the same again. I can play games or do anything until I hit a key. The key board and mouse are in the right ports, it's a dell 450 mghz processor, running win 98 se.It worked fine for 2 years, I stored it in a closet for about 6 months, then when I hooked it up again, I used the keyboard to set up the network, then updated my windows, then it happened. Any help would be great. I can get into the bios by using a boot cd, then f2, but I can't do anything that makes a difference.

isn't there anyone out of all the computer experts on here that can help me? I tried to reinstall win98, but can't do that because I can't put in the product key, because as soon as I touch the keyboard, the computer locks up tighter than the pin feathers on a prairie chicken.. i have already changed to 2 other keyboards, and changed the mouse.Can anyone help with this? Thanks, Jim
 

Originally posted by jmeix:

Quote:isn't there anyone out of all the computer experts on here that can help me? I tried to reinstall win98, but can't do that because I can't put in the product key, because as soon as I touch the keyboard, the computer locks up tighter than the pin feathers on a prairie chicken.. i have already changed to 2 other keyboards, and changed the mouse.Can anyone help with this? Thanks, Jim
 
Expert? Well, that's debatable, but have you tried to get into the BIOS on that Dell? Can you get into the BIOS on a Dell? Possibly by setting it to "fail-safe defaults" you'll get your keyboard back.
 
How about safe mode? If you can get in with safe mode, remove the keyboard drivers, slap the '98 CD in the drive, reboot, and let Windoze put them back in for you.
 
Damn, '98 was buggy. ;(

i tried safe mode reboot and the keyboard still froze up my computer.this is really frustrating me

But, did you actually do what Relic asked? He wanted you to boot into safe mode. Then, right click on My Computer, then click on Properties from the menu, then Click on Device Manager or Hardware Manager. Go down to Keyboard anc click on the "+" sign. Then, click on the Keyboard type. Then, he wanted you to Remove this as a device. It will then either direct you to look for the proper driver or ask you to reboot. etc. Before your remove it as a device, you might want to look at its properties (click on Properties button) and see if there are any conflicts - from other drivers or the memory reserved is shared by another device.

Thank You so much Sampson and others.I am NOW TYPING from my keyboard once more.WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO! I really, really appreciate all your advice and removing my keyboard in safe mode did the trick.I can not THANK YOU enough for the advice.
 
Thank You,
Daren

Happy to see you got it back.
 
Maybe I should expand on my answers, instead of waiting for Sampson to do it for me, hahahahaaha

You're not alone! I am running XP with two user accounts on my machine, one for me and for my wife. Was typing away earlier today and the keyboard failed. Thought it was batteries, was not. Changed keyboards-- same problem.
 
Now here is where it gets interesting. Restarted computer but in my wife's account instead of mine. NO PROBLEM, keyboard fine. Changed accounts and this time got a fatal fault relating to my mother board, an Asus K8V Delux. Required using the power switch to get out.
 
Again-- wife's account fine, mine still has the "Asus Probe 2=> Cannot creae shell notification icon."
 
Thats where I am at. Just found this website so I inted to look into the device manager as mentioned in earlier posts
 
Foggy--- very much in a fog!

Could not get into safe mode, keyboard inactive during startup until I get logged into wife's account. Did delete the Logitech drivers and reloaded from their disk.
 
Something keeps trying to get into the machine. While I was tying this, 3-4 attempts asking me to check an OK box for something or other. Until those boxes were cleared, the keyboard was inactive.

Yours is probably a completely different problem. The message "Cannot create shell notification icon." comes up when the systray icons can't be created fast enough, or one or other of them has disappeared. or for whatever reason the timing of their creation in the system tray is off. Apparently Asus Probe 2 is infamous for doing this.
 
The first thing you need to do is run your Anti-virus program and any spyware programs you have just to see if some trojan hasn't inserted itself in your startup or registry and it is responsible for the Asus Probe program misfiring. If you find something, quarantine or delete it. Reboot and see if it is fixed. If nothing is found, there are several workarounds that have been proposed:
1) Install a Startup Delayer: http://www.r2.com.au/software.php?show=startdelay (it's free and works for a lot of people.
2) You could remove the startup key from the registry and invoke the program from the startup folder thus delaying its running.
3) One method of last resort is to give up the user profile, create an entirely new user, and copy as much data and settings as possible from the old user to the new.
 
None of these solutions explain why Asus Probe does this. Some blame it on plug 'n play, and some on Delphi, the program language that the software probe was written in.

Sampson, thank you for your prompt reply!
 
I did find the same problem later posted over on the Asus board. The recommended fix was to check for a virus. I did fix the thing but it took several hours.
 
I first purchased Winvirus or something like that. Tried to download using my wife's account. Darn thing would not download, I believe the problem at the sender's end. Message was "could not download for technical reasons but will be available the next time I start the computer." NO, I cancelled the order via my CC.
 
Visited TrendMicro and got a free scan---using my wife's account because keyboard froze on mine. The scan found NUMEROUS risky files including virus contamination. But all the bad files were in my /program/ locations that were protected from Wifey's intrusion. They could not be deleted. To make matters worse, 75% of the times I start my machine, I get a "fan error" that requires pushing f1. Guess what! Keyboard was frozen until Windows starts in Wifey's account. What I was trying to do was get into protected mode, administrator's account.
 
Well after playing the start/shut off game for a while, I finally was able to get into Safe Mode and logged in as administrator. Here I was able to use Microsoft's Repair or what ever its called. Set the date back almost a week for the new base line and whatever MIcrosoft's program did, it ultimately fixed my problem. Like new again.
 
Thank you for showing interest in my agony!
 
Foggy

If you remember it, maybe you could give the name of the virus you found. By the way, congratulations.

Looking backwards, one is quick to see mistakes made. In this case the mistake was not printing the scanned output. I do recall however some files named Troj. That seems to simple but that is what I recall. Is there a virus named Trojan??? The very name Trojan seems like it would be a dead give away if anybody went specifically looking for it.
 
It is so damned easy to take things such as an operating computer for granted.
 
Foggy

Thank you for trying. Yes, there are any number of Trojans out there. I hope you now have begun to use a router (if you are on a cable/DSL modem), a firewall, anti-virus and spyware programs so that you won't encounter another up close and personal.

Hi there guys.
I have noticed (duh) that several of you have problems with getting into your computer when it crashes for unknown reasons. I propose that you find and download a Linux Rescue CD (any Live Linux version cd can be used for this purpose. A "live Linux CD" boots a Linux OS from the CD-ROM into RAM without touching the OS on the hard disk !!, useful?), or the UBCD4W (Ultimate Boot Disk For Windows, which functions as a live cd) From any of these CD:s you can boot and repair your PC. The UBCD4W, comes with numerous useful tools (if you download it as is, or if you prefer to make it yourself, it is possible to load the UBCD4W:cd with the preferred software of your choice. Google, and you will find! I used the information provided on this page to create my personal UBCD4W and it worked like a charm: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
 
Or try these:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://slax.linux-live.org/download.php
 
There are several more.
The friendly Swede.
[Edited by added venom on 2005-12-09 00:42:01]