Keyboard stopped working but is OK now

My PS2 keyboard stopped working for my Windows XP system, in that typing a
key had no effect unless I held the key down for a long time. At first I
thought my keyboard was bad, so I tried a new one. It didn't work either,
and I could not toggle on the Cap Lock light, the Scroll Lock light, or the
Num Lock light.

I tried rebooting several times (both warm and cold starts), but that didn't
help. Then I took a peek into my BIOS pages, and nothing appeared to be
wrong there either.

I then assumed that the motherboard PS2 keyboard port was defective, so I
installed a USB keyboard. Still no help. Finally I did a search in Google
for keyboard problems, and found what I think was a solution to the
problem - FILTER KEYS.

The Google search page told me that by holding down the keyboard Num Lock
key for several seconds, a drop down menu appears. So I did that and then
clicked the "Settings" button in that menu. A second menu appeared. In this
menu was a FilterKeys option. It was checked. After unchecking this option
and clicking OK, the keyboard worked fine and all of the Lock lights
worked..

I removed the USB keyboard, re-installed my original PS2 keyboard, and it
worked fine too.

I've never had a need to adjust any of the keyboard settings (for one thing,
I'm a slow typist). Apparently my grandson, who uses this computer the most,
thought he needed to use the Filter Keys.

Anybody else have this experience? What good is the FilterKeys option?

On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 20:36:54 -0500, Papa wrote:

> My PS2 keyboard stopped working for my Windows XP system, in that typing a
> key had no effect unless I held the key down for a long time. At first I
> thought my keyboard was bad, so I tried a new one. It didn't work either,
> and I could not toggle on the Cap Lock light, the Scroll Lock light, or the
> Num Lock light.
>
> I tried rebooting several times (both warm and cold starts), but that didn't
> help. Then I took a peek into my BIOS pages, and nothing appeared to be
> wrong there either.
>
> I then assumed that the motherboard PS2 keyboard port was defective, so I
> installed a USB keyboard. Still no help. Finally I did a search in Google
> for keyboard problems, and found what I think was a solution to the
> problem - FILTER KEYS.
>
> The Google search page told me that by holding down the keyboard Num Lock
> key for several seconds, a drop down menu appears. So I did that and then
> clicked the "Settings" button in that menu. A second menu appeared. In this
> menu was a FilterKeys option. It was checked. After unchecking this option
> and clicking OK, the keyboard worked fine and all of the Lock lights
> worked..
>
> I removed the USB keyboard, re-installed my original PS2 keyboard, and it
> worked fine too.
>
> I've never had a need to adjust any of the keyboard settings (for one thing,
> I'm a slow typist). Apparently my grandson, who uses this computer the most,
> thought he needed to use the Filter Keys.
>
> Anybody else have this experience? What good is the FilterKeys option?

Your grandson may have accidentally activated Filter Keys. Each of the
keyboard Accessibility Options have a keyboard "shortcut" assigned.
Pressing the shortcut keys activates the feature. Gamers especially find
themselves activating these things accidentally.

How to avoid: disable the keyboard shortcuts.

Open Accessibility Options in control panel.
In each keyboard related section (filter keys, sticky keys, etc), there is
a Settings button. Click it. On next page that appears, uncheck the box
next to the "use keyboard shortcut" option.

What good are the Filter Keys and other keyboard options found in
Accessibility Options? They are designed to provide "ease of access" for
those with poor motor skills. However, I know quite a few "fat-fingered
typists" that like to use these features as an aid in avoiding typing
errors.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User