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Flashing keyboard lights.

richardm

Philosopher
richardm
Joined
Aug 6, 2001
Messages
9,248
I've noticed a strange thing happening on my PC. Every now and then it locks up for a second, and the Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock lights come on briefly. Then everything returns to normal.

It's quite weird. I've given it a virus scan and an AdAware once-over, and they didn't find anything.

Anyone got any ideas? It's a Dell running Windows XP Professional, by the way.
 
Does it coincide with anything shutting down? The screen, the hard drive? I'm thinking Windows Power Management conflicts.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Does it coincide with anything shutting down? The screen, the hard drive? I'm thinking Windows Power Management conflicts.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be; I usually notice it when it happens while I'm typing. It's a bit odd. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it happens at a particular time of day, and have a hunt around to see if something's trying to do something at that point.
 
You have a USB keyboard, right?

Either you've got a loose connector, or something is resetting that driver. You could have another device on the USB interfering, too...

Just guessing.

A new keyboard can be got for under $20 -- if you can't come up with anything better, switch it out and see whether the problem goes away. Could be the beer you spilled in there.
 
scribble said:
You have a USB keyboard, right?

Either you've got a loose connector, or something is resetting that driver. You could have another device on the USB interfering, too...
Click to expand...

Could very well be that. I've just reseated all the plugs and I'll see if that - oh, well, even as I was typing this reply it just flashed and hung briefly so I guess not :D I'll make a note of the time here while I'm about it (9:21) and try again tomorrow....
 
richardm said:
Could very well be that. I've just reseated all the plugs and I'll see if that - oh, well, even as I was typing this reply it just flashed and hung briefly so I guess not
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If it hangs briefly then probably it's not software related. The connection is faulty somewhere. Isn't it the same behavior as if you unplug and replug the keyboard ?
 
Reviving a thread from 2004...
I have the same problem. I have XP Professional and the Num, Caps and Scroll Lock lights flash every couple of minutes making the keyboard hang and mouse cursor jumps frantically to the upper left corner of the screen.
Very strange.
Anyone got any ideas?
 
Most likely cause of that is a loose or bad keyboard or mouse. Try working without one or the other, or if you have replacements then go that route for testing.
 
Is your keyboard connected via USB or PS/2? Could be the comm port controlling the device is resetting periodically for some paranormal reason.
 
If you can demonstrate via a documentable and scientifically sound test, that your PC has become infested with the spirit of Charles Babbage, then...yes.
 
This sounds pretty much exactly like a USB connect/reconnect event. Something is going awry such that the keyboard is being effectively disconnected (the OS drops it) and reconnected (the OS loads it and makes it go flashy-flashy).

Check your connections. Re-seat the plugs. Eliminate any hubs or splitters you have (use hubs for less used peripherals, keyboard and mouse should plug in directly to your machine).
 
kylev said:
This sounds pretty much exactly like a USB connect/reconnect event. Something is going awry such that the keyboard is being effectively disconnected (the OS drops it) and reconnected (the OS loads it and makes it go flashy-flashy).

Check your connections. Re-seat the plugs. Eliminate any hubs or splitters you have (use hubs for less used peripherals, keyboard and mouse should plug in directly to your machine).
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will try to incorporate all the suggestions.
 
yairhol- you didn't buy a second hand keyboard from a flea market in Fort William, by any chance?
 
JoeyDonuts said:
If you can demonstrate via a documentable and scientifically sound test, that your PC has become infested with the spirit of Charles Babbage, then...yes.
Click to expand...

If my PC had become infested with the spirit of Charles Babbage, I would consider that the Coolest Thing Ever.
 
yairhol said:
Thanks, I will try to incorporate all the suggestions.
Click to expand...

And if none of those work, you should get a new keyboard and mouse. I personally like the cheapo, $15 IBM USB keyboards they used to sell in a big pile at your favorite computer stores (they had them at CompUSA, for example).

As for the mouse cursor zipping up to the upper-left corner, I've had this happen also. The issue for that is either a bad mouse or a bad USB jack. Since you have this problem with the keyboard, too, I'd vote that your entire USB card is faulty. Get and install a new USB card (something like this would be fine). They're cheap, so if it turns out not to be the fix, you're not out a lot of cash.

Andy
 
Soapy Sam said:
yairhol- you didn't buy a second hand keyboard from a flea market in Fort William, by any chance?
Click to expand...

:D

yairhol said:
Anyone got any ideas?
Click to expand...

Hmm, I missed the resurrection of this thread. I'm still using the same keyboard, but the PC it was connected to is dead and gone, and I don't have the same problem with the new one. As solutions go, it's quite an expensive one but it seems to have worked!

- incidentally, I didn't get the usb disconnect/connect sounds when this happened, which I might have expected if it was a connection problem. On the other hand, looking back the behaviour was pretty much as you'd expect to see a keyboard behave at boot time. So who knows.
 
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