As mentioned by somebody else, substituting another keyboard might do the 
trick. How are your computer resources? I have found that if I am 
ovewhelming my computer, all types of mischief occur.

I know it doesn't solve your problem, but I have a way for you to minimize 
lost data. You indicate that your mouse continues to work, so saving a file 
that way will help. If you have not previously saved a file, I can think of 
2 alternatives. The first is to cut and paste text from one of your open 
files into the file name.

****BONUS QUESTION FOR ALL YOU GURUS OUT THERE-On some file types I can 
paste a file name into the "save file as" slot, but othertimes (like with 
Word) I cannot. What's going on, and more importantly, how can I fix it?

Back to your question. If you haven't previously saved your file, and cannot 
cut and paste a file name in, keep a "Break in case of fire (file?)" 
filename handy. It would just be an empty file, but in case of keyboard 
failure, you could save whatever file you have open to that file. Not only 
would you not lose what you are working on, you would always know where to 
find it.

BTW, sometimes when my (eMachines) computer is acting up, I do the three 
finger salute, and then just X out of it and the problem is resolved. Can't 
say why. Just works sometimes.

William Closure


----Original Message Follows----

Date:    Sun, 14 May 2006 19:02:36 -0500
From:    Dennis Duke <[log in to unmask]>

I have an Emachine running Windows XP Home. Once in a while - =
fortunately, infrequently - my keyboard will go away. The computer (or =
Windows operating system) can't see it and the only way I can get things =
back to normal is to reboot the machine. I have been unable to figure =
out if it is related to a specific program or not, as I said it doesn't =
happen very often.

Does anyone have a clue or, equally important, is there a way to recover =
the keyboard without rebooting the machine? Sometimes when it quits, I =
am in Word or notepad or some other program entering some sort of data =
and will lose some of it. If I have saved the data before the problem I =
can use the mouse to save what I have typed since then but, If I have =
just started to do something by creating a new file, I cannot do a 'save =
as' and type in a file name and simply have to reboot.

                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
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                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>