If it is a PS/2 connected keyboard, it is not safe to unplug it then plug it in again when the Windows is still on - you can damage the keyboard circuits and possibly circuits on the mboard connected to the keyboard port. It's the same situation for a PS/2 mouse. It's only safe with a serial mouse if no mouse is connected while booting and Windows tells you no mouse was detected and it is safe to plug in a serial mouse at that point (Win 98/98SE, probably 95/ME, does that - I'm not sure if XP does). If you have already done that the keyboard circuits may be damaged. Even if you did that, it may not work after you plug it in again until you reboot. A USB connected keyboard is hot swappable and you can unplug it and plug it in again at any time without harm. I haven't tried that - I don't know if you would have to reboot after you plug it back in - presumably you don't. If you have a keyboard with a PS/2 connector that was designed to be used with either PS/2 or USB, you can use the simple USB to PS/2 port adapter that came with it to connect it to USB, or if you have lost the adapter, a generic simple USB to PS/2 port adapter will probably work. A simple USB to PS/2 port adapter will not work unless your keyboard was designed to be used with both PS/2 and USB. In any case you should not be getting these symptoms at all. Your best bet is to try another keyboard for an extended period. One thing you could try when you are having problems that won't hurt anything, if your mouse still works, is to go to Device Manager and RIGHT click on the keyboard name and Uninstall the keyboard, don't reboot when it prompts you to, then RIGHT click on the first entry in Device Manager and click on Scan for Hardware Changes - then click on the X top right to close Device Manager - that will re-install the Windows keyboard support and you shouldn't have to reboot. If it is the very unlikely case that the keyboardc PS/2 port itself or its circuits is the problem: - If you are not using a PS/2 mouse, or you can use a USB or serial mouse instead of one, and you have only PS/2 only keyboards to try, many laptops have a single PS/2 port, and SOME desktop computers have both PS/2 ports, wired such that either a PS/2 mouse or a PS/2 keyboard can be used in the port / both ports. Try the PS/2 keyboard in the PS/2 mouse port - if it doesn't work, no harm done, the wiring isn't there for a keyboard. - you could borrow a USB connected keyboard, or you could get a PS/2 keyboard and PS2 mouse (both female)to USB (male) adapter - it has short cords in a Y arrangement, and a circuit within it's wiring (a plain USB to PS/2 port adapter will not work unless your keyboard is designed to be used with both and it came with the adapter) and connect a PS/2 keyboard to that adapter - however, many new USB keyboards are cheaper than the cheapest adapters of this type. How old is your monitor? Some older monitors will sometimes light up their screen after a few minutes when the monitor is on and the computer is off but powered - it hasn't actually woken up - it's a normal quirk.

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"Some older monitors will sometimes light up their screen after a few minutes when the monitor is on and the computer is off but powered - it hasn't actually.." been woken up by the mboard or Windows "...- it's a normal quirk." It may do the same thing when the monitor is on and the computer is not powered. In any case, a monitor, especially a crt one, will last longer if you remove the power to it when you are not going to be using it for longer periods of time - it certainly does not need to be on when you are sleeping or at work. A computer does not to be powered either in the same situations unless you want it to wake up in certain situations such as to receive a fax. It doesn't decrease the life of most components if it is powered all the time, but the ATX power supply is always powering parts of the mboard even when Windows is Shut Down or in Standby or Hibernate modes, and it is quite possible for the PS to fail when Windows is in that state and trash itself and quite possibly anything else connected to the computer.

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Good Diagnostic tactics! My Keyboard is PS/2,thanks for the warning! My monitor [5-7-10 years old?] has been powered OFF when it is awakened [into ScreenSaver mode] -which doesn't seem to be the case you're describing...? Yes my mouse is still working during my problem & many [or all?] other functions as well.I will try your test of uninstalling/reinstalling the Keyboard during problem!--If this solved the problem it would tell me that the driver was the cause of the problem--Yes? I will try another Keyboard [& disable ACPI in BIOS-per your clue],but first I may try to recreate the problem --I suspect Accessibility Options could cause my beep,lights,monitor symptoms [don't know if it could cause my Keyboard symptoms] . Other suspects are Malware or Virus. I have also now run Spybot & Symantec online [as well as my usual AdAware & CA Assoc anti-V]. I also may Restore to an earlier date to eliminate any possible stray [Registry?}settings as a cause. I leave the PC on 24/7. I leave the Hard Drive at full power because I had bad experiences in Win98 w failure to wake up after powering down. But now I'm considering what you advised re the wear on PS & damage to system.

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"I will try your test of uninstalling/reinstalling the Keyboard during problem!--If this solved the problem it would tell me that the driver was the cause of the problem--Yes?" If you are using a standard Windows driver it's built into Windows. If you are using a keyboard with special buttons and you have loaded support for that, it's still mostly standard Windows drivers. It is extremely unlikely it is a driver problem - you would probably have problems all the time if that was the case. "--I suspect Accessibility Options could cause my beep,lights,monitor symptoms [don't know if it could cause my Keyboard symptoms] ." Nope, and nope. The only things that affect your monitor waking up are in Control Panel - Power..... "Other suspects are Malware or Virus." Like I've already said, most of your syptoms cannot be caused by those. And if you had those, it is likely you would have problems all the time. I know from experience a wonky keyboard can do bizzare things, so it's common for people to suspect malware, but I have never found that to be the case, and I have never heard of that being the case. I even flashed my bios once un-necessarily - I've been fooled too. "I also may Restore to an earlier date to eliminate any possible stray [Registry?}settings as a cause." Go ahead and try it if you like, but it's a waste of time. If it was a registry setting it would likely cause problems all the time. "I leave the Hard Drive at full power because I had bad experiences in Win98 w failure to wake up after powering down. This is also in the ACPI info I pointed you to, in more detail...read it..... The computer I am typing this on has a mboard that has ACPI does not get along with Win 98SE's support of ACPI. If the computer went into Standby mode it never came out of it. This is not really a serious problem, but it sure is annoying. 98SE also had problems shutting down properly on many mboards - not mine, but I've seen others that had the problem - it would get stuck partially shut down - a patch (Shutdown Supplement) became available, and is suggested on Windows Update nowadays, and installing it fixes the problem on most motherboards/computers. You can disable Windows caused ACPI problems in Win 95/98/98SE/ME by disabling both LoadPowerProfile lines in MSConfig - Startup. XP's support of ACPI works much better for most mboards, especially newer ones, and you would probably have no problem with Standby with it.

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In Accessibility: Toggle Keys causes a Beep when either Caps,Num, or Scroll lock are pressed ;[hi Beep for On or lo Beep for Off-hence TOGGLE]. This Lo Beep sounds exactly the BIOS Startup beep I hear when my problem starts! Toggle Keys can be activated permanently;or activated on-the-fly: if you hold down the Num Lock for 5 secs [the Shortcut box must also be ticked--mine is ticked]. This is very suggestive of my problem where Caps,Num,Scroll lock lights are locked on-- which might activate Toggle Keys; and where Caps,Num,Scroll lock [lights] turn on & off ,which could cause a beep combined with Toggle Keys. Do you think? ------------------ Note: I have had problems in the past where, for no reason, the monitor repeatedly wakes up from it's Powered-Off state [& then shuts itself off again after 15 min-- per my power options settings];but during these episodes there's NO BEEP when it wakes up or shuts down--just 2 click sounds. There's never a beep unless my keyboard problem happens.

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Why can't you just let things be for the time being and try another keyboard for an extended period? Most of the ideas you have about the cause of your problems are off on an illogical tangent! Give another keyboard a chance! If there are any problems with your Windows software from your Windows CD, that can easily be repaired! Again, if it were software that is causing your problems, the problems would most likely happen all the time. "This Lo Beep sounds exactly the BIOS Startup beep I hear when my problem starts!" So? Lots of things can do that, including the mboard itself when it detects errors, such as a malfunctioning keyboard, as you said yourself: "There's never a beep unless my keyboard problem happens." And again, if it were caused by Accessibilty settings, it would most likely give you problems all the time. Are you using Accessibilty settings - if you aren't why are you even going down that road? " Note: I have had problems in the past where, for no reason, the monitor repeatedly wakes up from it's Powered-Off state [& then shuts itself off again after 15 min-- per my power options settings];but during these episodes there's NO BEEP when it wakes up or shuts down--just 2 click sounds." See the ACPI info I pointed you to. Whether you get a beep varies with what mboard you have. I've only seen one that does that, and it only does it if Windows is NOT loaded, such as when I am using a utility that boots with a floppy disk. o copy a partition. By the way - check your bios Setup settings - turn off anything that turns off your monitor after xx minutes of inactivity - it might interfere with the Windows ACPI or Power Management settings.

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FYI: I am using XP,SP2; & No,I'm not using Accessibility options. -------------- OK! I will just try another keyboard! I see you have a lot experience & your MOBO explanation for the beep is interesting ! Sorry,it's just that I was just interested in finding an explanation & solving the puzzle. --------------- I once had a strange [corrupted registry] experience on Win98, where Accessibility Options were causing a beep, but none of the corresponding boxes showed up as ticked in Control Panel![--I'm sure of this.] I was able to stop the beep by repeatedly ticking & unticking the boxes. ----------------- Re:ACPI --Yes I read your tips,Thanks! I was only trying to give you some possibly related symptoms when I said : "the monitor repeatedly wakes up from it's Powered-Off state... ;but during these episodes there's NO BEEP." And,the LACK of a beep here was meant to CONTRAST these symptoms from my present problem. ------------------------ Thanks for your generous contributions! ------------------ PS: No problems for the last 4 days!

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"FYI: I am using XP,SP2" I saw that in your first post, and had it in mind all along. My experinces I had with the mboard ACPI not getting along with Windows ACPI support were with 98SE, but I have seen many posts here and elsewhere that make it obvious some people have the same problems with XP, whatever service pack it has or has been upgraded to. It is probably less likely XP will not get along with your mboard ACPI, but when it does give you problems it can be much harder to fix the problems in XP. Your registry being corrupt in Win98 could have been fixed in several ways without having to install Windows from scratch. Whatever symptoms you had while the registry was corrupt are random, and probably don't relate at all to your present situation. "PS: No problems for the last 4 days!" That's what I wanted to hear, after you have tried another keyboard for a while.

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