# Solved: keyboard and mouse lock up at random



## davephil (Apr 7, 2000)

I purchased the following and installed for a friend. emachines et1835-01 win7 desktop.. 3gb,300gb,32bit. am using with her 2yr gateway monitor. She's only been using this new system for about 4 weeks. The only additional software installed was aol9-using dialup. A few days ago she called me saying her mouse OR her keyboard would just lock up,turning off/on pc was only way to get back. Thought it was something regarding hibernation or sleep, but today I had her turn off pc, then back on. When on the phone with her. after turning back on, everything was fine. after she hit caps lock on keyboard, mouse and keyboard froze (yellow light on monitor).I waited until system slept (15 min.) just to see if could wake up-nothing. keyboard and mouse still frozen (yellow light on monitor). Other times, from what I could determine from talking to her, it's always the keyboard starting the problem. hitting random keys locks up keyboard, which locks up mouse. she stated she was replying to email (aol) and in the middle of typing, keyboard locked, then mouse locked at same time. I am going there tomorrow, and am going to look at keyboard connection into pc (pins bent,etc), then at the drivers (up to date? ok?). other than that, I have no idea what else to look for--any help would is appreciated! Thanks.


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## lastrachris (Jan 17, 2010)

What OS is she using? Sometimes you need to re-install the drivers if the keyboard and mouse were meant for a certain version. Try bringing over your mouse and keyboard. See if it works. Sometimes things just don't work properly with certain machines.


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## davephil (Apr 7, 2000)

thanks. it's windows 7,32bit. very strange, since it's a brand new machine. but when I go over tomorrow, I will look at drivers, and update them. it's a pretty low-end machine-the keyboard is straight-forward, no internet or extra buttons, etc. I will take over another keyboard, but since this is intermittent, don't know if this will tell me anything right away.


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## lastrachris (Jan 17, 2010)

If you have any extras, just leave them over there and see if that fixes the problem. This all sounds very bizarre.


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## davephil (Apr 7, 2000)

went to my friends' house. keyboard was locked, mouse still moved and worked. I looked in device manager, and there was no keyboard entry at all. I hit the 'num lock' button, and the mouse froze up! I had to manually turn off pc. I turned it back on, went into device manager, and the keyboard entry was back-both the keyboard and mouse were working fine. I removed the keyboard entry, let windows re-boot and re-install driver for keyboard. since then, keyboard and mouse work just fine. re-started several times, typed, hit every key I could think of, no problems. I decided not to change keyboards just now-wait to see if driver update worked. If not, I guess it's a keyboard change, and if that doesn't work-keyboard controller? Other info: my friend said that after about 2 hours (after kb and mouse froze up), she moved the mouse, and the pc woke up. that's the way I found it when I got there. Thanks for the help.


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## lastrachris (Jan 17, 2010)

Irony here >>>> This same thing happens to me on Ubuntu though when I have to manually shut down the computer without a proper shut down. I have to do it twice before they recognize.


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## davephil (Apr 7, 2000)

just got a call from my friend; she turned off her pc because of a storm last night. this morning, she turned it back on, it seemed to work. as soon as she tried to type, the keyboard locked, and the mouse locked also. she had to manually turn pc off, then when it came back on, everything seems to work ok. I'm going over tom.morning and replace thekeyboard. While I'm there, any other advice as to what I might be looking for? Thanks.


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## lastrachris (Jan 17, 2010)

Look for dust or anything else in the port socket. Sometimes dust buildup can cause errors like that. Maybe something else got placed in it that could also be causing it to freeze. Thats all I got man. Hope for the best. If a new keyboard seemed to work, then I don't think that anything would be in the socket.


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## davephil (Apr 7, 2000)

SOLVED. I exchanged keyboards, and her system has been up for 10 days. I used HER keyboard on my 2nd pc, and the system locked 3 times-all when I hit diff. keys on the keyboard. never heard of this before, but I guess keyboards can have elec. problems, also. Thanks for the help.


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## lastrachris (Jan 17, 2010)

Glad to hear it. Yeah, if you got it with the computer that tends to happen a lot.


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