WinXP wont shutdown with USB keyboard

[fidman]

Try this one for sighs...

We just bought a kickass brand new Toshiba Satellite 1105 laptop for my brother and it runs WinXP Home. It has three USB sockets on the back and no other way to add any external mouse or keyboard. i.e. no auxiliary mouse or keyboard sockets.

After using it for three days we went out and bought a USB mouse and a USB keyboard because he bitched about the laptop keyboard and pointing device.

When we plugged them in, they were both detected instantly and both worked (as well as the laptops own keyboard and pointing device). We thought this was great and congratulated XP for finally getting plug'n'play together at last.

However when we tried to shutdown, XP logged off the user and then froze with the "Windows is shutting down" message on screen.

We had to remove the laptop battery to turn it off. On powering on again, the USB keyboard was not working although the USB mouse was OK. I looked at the device manager and it said the USB keyboard was working properly. I tried to uninstall it but the darn thing froze up. I removed the battery again and rebooted with the keyboard removed. The device manager showed the USB keyboard was gone. We plugged it back in and it was again detected and ran OK but on shutdown the screen again froze with the same '..shutting down' message. We removed the battery again and tried the USB keyboard and mouse socket switched around - same results.

It seems that the USB keyboard always gets detected after a reboot with only the laptop keyboard in device manager and functions fine until shutdown which fails with the freeze-up.

The USB mouse always works fine with the laptop and the USB keyboard always fails on shutdown even with the USB mouse removed. I refuse to get into a scenario where I always need to remove the keyboard before shutting down because I know my brother will forget to do it, and thats a dork solution anyway.

I moved the USB keyboard to my WIN2K desktop and it always works perfectly all the time after many shutdown/reboots and never freezes the Win2k. In fact I am typing with the USB keyboard now.

So, what gives? Why would the XP Toshiba fail to shutdown with the keyboard present? Is there a conflict with the laptop keyboard driver?

What tests can I do to prove it? I cant remove the Toshiba keyboard physically. It will always be detected, even if I disabled it in device manager correct?

I am out of fresh ideas and my brother now blames me for the purchase. What do I do now?

[K A Hall]

MS has a KB article about this. See if it applies .

[Tuf]

It does sound like there is a problem with drivers that are being used. What kind of keyboard are you using?

I would check the manufaturers site's (Toshiba's and the Keybaord maker's) for a patch. If all else fails try a different keyboard.

[fidman]

Dang,
I thought I had found a reasonable suspect. There is a USB power control option in Device Manager/../USB Hub /Power Control

I turned it off and rebooted the Toshiba but the net effect is still the same as previously reported.

There was no driver for this model keyboard made by Belkin on their website.

[Tuf]

If a different keyboard doesn't fix the problem call Toshiba and see if they have a cure. I'm sure they would have plenty of complaints by now if an external keyboard causes a problem as serious as this.

[fidman]

OK folks,

enough puttzing with software...
I bought a $2 in-line switch one would use for a table lamp, from a local hardware store.

The USB wiring is

Red Vcc +5v
Green -signal
White -signal
Bare - Ground

Break into the keyboard cable and pick out the red wire and cut it and wire it into the switch. Route the other wires along the channel (usually these switches are 110Vac and the live wire is switched and the ground wire runs in the bypass channel provided.

Add some clear contact adhesive at the wiring entry and exit ends of the switch to make the keyboard cable secure and its done.

Turn the keyboard ON after booting the laptop and OFF before shutdown, and to hell with B.Gates and his XP shortcomings