[SOLVED] USB Keyboard Explorer Blue screen AHHHHH!

[TripleCrown]

This is a hard one. My sister has a machine with a broken ps/2 keyboard port, so she goes out and buys a USB keyboard.

Fine.

Everything works great.

Then, she upgrades Win95 to 98, and now she gets the "Explorer has performed an illegal operation.." message after she clicks ok in the wndows logon dialogue, machine halts.

OK. Reinstall windows, right?

But she puts the boot disk in the drive, the machine boots, CD-ROM support, but of course the USB keyboard is not working in dos.

She cant boot into safe mode, f8 key doesnt work in dos.

I told her to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL after clicking OK at the login dialogue and end explorer, or whatever programs started, but that didnt seem to work.

Any ideas??

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Welcome, TC

Can you loan her your keyboard?

 

[TripleCrown]

She's in Buffalo, unfortunately. But if I could, I would. I'm a good brother.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

I'm not sure what else she can do but try another keyboard. Maybe someone else will know a trick. Around here they are pretty cheap and you can often find them in thrift shops for $5. (look for one with a Windows key) It's good to have a spare.

I haven't used a USB one myself, but I believe they are often dual compatible. But if there is no ps/2 adapter for it, her's isn't.

 

[TripleCrown]

The thing is, its not the keyboard, the keyboard works because she used it until she upgraded to 98, then she got the explorer.exe prob. The problem is, she cant get into windows to reinstall....and dos doesnt support the kb, ps/2 conn. broken.

It's a pickle.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

I don't know about a usb keyboard, but a standard keyboard will work with a boot disk.

That is what she is going to have to load to reinstall windows. There is an alternative shell program which can load besides Explorer, but a DOS functional keyboard is needed to do it.

There may be a BIOS issue here with the USB keyboard not working in DOS; she would need to know how to access her BIOS setup and see if there is an option to enable USB.

 

[TripleCrown]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the machine is too old to support the kb through the bios. I was gonna tell her to change shell to progman, but....the dos thing. I hate catch 22's.

The only thing I can think of is to take the hard drive out and transplant it into another machine and change it, or get a ps/2 card, but I am convinced that is a little too extreme.

I was hoping there was a way to actually run a program before, or immediately after the windows logon screen. This would be ideal.

Also, she cant even get into the BIOS without the kb, naturally..

 

[Dan O]

Here's a Microsoft Q article that should help: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q206/0/02.ASP

Good luck, it looks like it may be the answer you need.

 

[TripleCrown]

Thanks, Dan, but the problem is not the keyboard. It is Windows(rather, its the outdated bios, plus the corrupt explorer).

The problem is i cannot get into windows, and the keyboard does not work in dos mode. I need a way to edit the system.ini file to change the windows shell back to progman, but i cant get past the login screen.

 

[Dan O]

I am sorry I gave you false hope. After re-reading the article it appears you need to re-install Windows 98.

I am not sure why you want to edit the system.ini file. But you don't need to be in Windows to edit the system.ini file, it can be done in MS-DOS mode. Use your Windows Startup diskette to boot the PC, which will place you in MS-DOS mode. Then use the EDIT command.

Another option may be a driver from the mouse manufacture. If you have a Elo TouchSystems mouse here's a link: http://www.elotouch.com/Support/dnld.asp

 

[TripleCrown]

Its such a problem because I cannot get into dos. If I could, I would have no problems.

 

[Dan O]

When you plugged the PS/2 mouse in was the PC powered off?

If not it could damage it. Another option is a serial mouse.

Have you tried re-installing Window 98 again?

 

[TripleCrown]

I finally figured out how to solve this perplexing problem. The answer is quite obvious, ya get a boot disk and run a file in autoexec.bat, a patch for system.ini to change shell=explorer.exe to shell=progman.exe. Then she can finally reinstall windows and life is good again.

A simple batch file.

That's it.

All I gotta do is send her a disk now. Fed-Ex or UPS, I dunno...thats another issue altogether.

 

[Dan O]

Cool, thanks for sharing. I will mark this thread solved.