OFF THE WALL QUESTION for a computer

[woodone]

Thanks Peteski~ The old keyboards I have are the PS/2 type.
The tower of the computer has a smaller version of the USB ?
But also have the normal USB’s on the front panel/smaller ones are at the back.
But whatever?? For some reason it has been working OK the last day or so, go figure.
Again thanks for all the input.

[carlso]

 Howdy Woody,

You mention an update at the beginning of your post. Well I too use Win10 and Outlook 2007 and last week their was an update that knocked off my HP printer and the send/receive for Outlook. Yea, I know that's what I get for using Outlook 2007. It's old like me. Works fine most of the time. I'll tell you, this 80 year old, spent 2 days attempting to get everything working, but eventually had to call for help.

My help is my Son ( Son-in-Law) who lives just across the fence. He is the IT guru for United Healthcare ( Well Med ) here in El Paso and very knowledgeable, heck he is only 47 and grew up with this stuff. He personally likes Apple stuff and has tried to swing me in that direction. No thanks, I do not need to be learning a new system.

Glad yours is working now.

Be well,
Carl

[peteski]

Thanks Peteski~ The old keyboards I have are the PS/2 type.
The tower of the computer has a smaller version of the USB ?
But also have the normal USB’s on the front panel/smaller ones are at the back.
But whatever?? For some reason it has been working OK the last day or so, go figure.
Again thanks for all the input.

You're welcome.  I'm also really surprised that a tower-type of a computer would have anything but the standard rectangular type USB receptacles anywhere on it. On tower-type computers I have never seen anything but the regular larger USB receptacles on both front and back panels.  Do those smaller replicates have a USB symbol next to them (to indicate that they are mini-USB receptacles)?

[mcjaco]

This pains me (haha) but I'd follow Peteski's train of thought.  Sounds like your USB dongle isn't communicating with the keyboard and mouse.  It has nothing to do with WiFi.  Could be the dongle.  Could be the USB port.

Could be Windows 10 not playing nice with the drivers of said USB dongle/keyboard/mouse set up anymore, if they're that old. 

[DKS]

I'm also really surprised that a tower-type of a computer would have anything but the standard rectangular type USB receptacles anywhere on it. On tower-type computers I have never seen anything but the regular larger USB receptacles on both front and back panels.

I have a relatively recent (~4 year old) HP Z840 tower workstation, and it has PS2 jacks for both the keyboard and mouse. No symbols; they are simply color-coded green and purple. And it is bristling with several USB connectors of both 1.0 and 2.0 versions.

[woodone]

All that I can say is it still does the same thing-works for awhile then just quits. The mouse works, because you can mover the curser.
The tower and keyboard are getting old?
Turn off the computer for awhile and restart and you are good to go, until it decides to stop.

[DKS]

Keyboards are seriously cheap. Just get a new one.

[peteski]

I have a relatively recent (~4 year old) HP Z840 tower workstation, and it has PS2 jacks for both the keyboard and mouse. No symbols; they are simply color-coded green and purple. And it is bristling with several USB connectors of both 1.0 and 2.0 versions.

Well, woodone is not very forthcoming with the descriptions of the connectors or ports.  After I showed him the various types of connectors he did confirm that the older keyboard do have PS/2 connector. He also mentioned that there are also ports smaller than the standard rectangular USB ports, but he made no mention of their shape. color or any other details.  I asked him for a better desription in my recent post. I would imagine that of the PS/2 connectors on his older keyboards fit the smaller ports, or even that their colors matched, he would have mentioned that to us.

Woodone:  are you sure that both the wireless keyboard and mouse share the same dongle (receiver) plugged into a USB port on your computer?
If possible, it would be helpful to see a photo of the back and front of your computer.  Or its brand and model number so we could bring up some online  manuals.

If the keyboard and a mouse share the same receiver then there is a good possibility that the keyboard itself is flaky (since you did replace its batteries).

[woodone]

Sorry Peteski,
I got tied up with problems with an install I was working on.
I should have got back to you.
You know me and photos.
I will PM. You.

[mmagliaro]

A word of caution about just "wiping everything and going back to Windows 7"... as I've read in here a few times.

I had a second, older machine that also used to run Win 7, and after a crash problem, I had to reinstall everything from scratch.  I had the basic O/S and driver DVDs.  But Microsoft updated Win 7 along the way so that all drivers have to be "signed" or it will not allow the driver to load.   On this older machine, the driver for the internal wifi module was unsigned (even though it's from Dell!), and there is no update for it.  So I found to my chagrin that I cannot install Win 7, and get any updates to it from the internet without that preventing the wifi driver from working.

There are hacks to the boot block you can find on the internet that can get around this, and I used one of them to make it work, but none of this was trivial to figure out.

Bottom line: If you ever have to wipe and reinstall a Win7 machine from scratch, you may run into devices that no longer work if you install any Win7 updates because of this driver signing requirement.  And you will likely find that not installing any Win7 updates isn't an option, either because other software requires them or because of security holes.

[wcfn100]

All that I can say is it still does the same thing-works for awhile then just quits. The mouse works, because you can mover the curser.
The tower and keyboard are getting old?
Turn off the computer for awhile and restart and you are good to go, until it decides to stop.

What model keyboard is it?

What program are you on when it stops working?

Have you looked to see if there are updated drivers for the keyboard?

Jason

[woodone]

I don’t know of a model # it is the wireless one that came with the computer when I got it/
Does not seem to matter what program you are running, has a matter of fact, when you first turn it on-you get a logon screen, this is where you must sign on with/ well you can’t do that because key strokes do not regesture . So you can’t even get to a program.
I really don’t know about drivers/not a computer geek at all.

[peteski]

Jerry (woodone) emailed me  some helpful photos of his equipment. I'll try to post them later tonight.

[peteski]

Here are some photos of Jerry's hardware.

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Front of his computer tower. HP Pavilion. I see a CF or SD card reader port, couple of audio ports (round ones), and couple of standard USB connectors (rectangular).

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Back of the tower. I added some legends.
It is all standard stuff, including standard-size USB port.  No PS/2 keyboard or mouse ports. So the older PS/2 keyboards/mice cannot be used. There is only one USB device connected to the computer (lower right). I assume it is coming from the wireless keyboard/mouse receiver.

I also see a network cable connected to the network port (and there is an amber activity LED illuminated at that port).  That seems to indicate that this computer has a wired connection to some network device. But Jerry states that he is using (and has problems with WiFi connection).  Interesting.  Worth investigating further.  Jerry, where is that gray network cable connected on the other end?

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This is the wireless keyboard/mouse receiver. HP brand. I have never seen this type of setup. Must be some older HP device.  The wireless receivers I'm familiar with are integrated into the USB port (smaller than even a typical USB thumb-drive).

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Wireless keyboard.

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Back of the wireless keyboard showing the battery compartment and the identification label. It shows 49MHz with I assume is the frequency of the wireless connection. Similar frequency used to be used in inexpensive remote control toys I used to own.  It is also way different than the WiFi frequencies (which are 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz).

As I see it, the most likely problem is the keyboard hardware itself. I suppose the driver (piece of software which interfaces the keyboard to the Windows operating system) could be flaky, but I think it is more likely a hardware problem (or maybe even radio interference on the 49MHz band).

As I see it, the cheapest and easiest solution would be to just buy a regular wired USB keyboard (and maybe even a wired USB mouse) and use those instead of this wireless unit.  Those will never need new batteries, and the drivers are likely already built-in into Windows 10.

Jerry also sent few screen photos of his WiFi settings.

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The control panel screen photo shows that the WiFi is not connected, while the last 2 screen photos show it connected to network called VIZIO.
I'm still confused why he would be using a wired and WiFi Internet connections at the same time. I guess this needs further investigation.


EDIT: Fixed VISIO (my mistake).

[peteski]

And for the change of pace, Jerry also sent me couple of railroady photos.  A bib Goy and one of his DCC sound installs (with ditch lights)!   

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