Internet Explorer had a problem and needed to close. Upon closing I lost the
function of my keyboard, which is a wireless model. I could not type with it.
I did a restart and it still would not work. I then unplugged the receiver
and plugged it in again. Still nothing.

I decided to restart again and do a System Restore. However, without the
function of the keyboard I could not type the password for my user account,
therefore I could not get to my desktop. I could not use the second account,
a standard user account with no password (yes, I realize it is stupid of me
to not have a password on this account) because I still could not use the
keyboard and without the keyboard I could not type my password whenever I
needed to elevate in order to check Device Manager or do a System Restore.

I then decided to boot into Safe Mode and do a System Restore. However, I
could not log into my user account since I could still not type the password.
I really don't understand this because my F8 and Enter keys still worked, the
arrow keys still worked and the number keys still worked. The problem had
nothing to do with the Scroll Lock, Number Lock or Caps Lock keys.

I knew the problem wasn't with my wireless keyboard because I checked it on
three other computers I have. It worked perfectly. I then tried a new Dell
USB keyboard that came with my new computer but has been unused. It worked
perfectly on the other three computers but would not work on the computer I
was having a problem with.

So I thought, what the hell, I'll contact Microsoft since I have a whole
three days left on my 90 day free support. It was such a wonderful thing for
Microsoft to give me 90 days free support for a new OS that will undoubtably
have bugs and incompatibilities until the first Service Pack comes out. I
wish I had purchased the retail upgrade from Dell. I would at least then have
three years of OS support from Dell.

Anyway, I was on the phone with Microsoft for two hours and they didn't have
a clue as to why I lost the function of my keyboard due to an IE crash. I had
to deal with five different departments. They couldn't fix the problem either
and had no idea why IE had crashed or why the crash disabled most of my
keyboard. I thanked them for their time and went on my merry way.

I decided to do a System Restore from the Vista installation DVD. My optical
mouse has always continued to work during this mess. The F12 key worked fine
also. I did the System Restore from the booted DVD and the keyboard was once
again functioning properly.

Could someone please tell me if they have had this problem before and what
caused it. I have not recently installed anything or uninstalled anything. I
have made no changes to my computer in the past few days. I did not install
the latest IE update that has given so many people different problems so I
know that was not the issue.

I keep a clean computer. I keep it defragged with PerfectDisk and I always
remove temporary internet files and cookies every day, sometimes more than
once depending upon what I have been doing.

In the event you need more information I list it as follows: The computer is
only two months old, a Dell E-521 that came installed with Vista Home Premium
32 bit but was upgraded via clean install with Vista Ultimate 32 bit a week
after I received it. The processor is an AMD Athlon 64X2 4200+ and the
graphics card is an ATI Radeon X1300 Pro with 256 MB. I have 4 GB of dual
channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz and a 320 GB hard drive. I have 30 GB free
space on the OS partition and 257 GB free space on the other partition.
Nothing fancy and nothing to brag about but it suits my needs. The Vista
Ultimate OS is on a 50 GB partition of the drive, more than necessary but I
still have 270 GB to play with for storage.

I want to know what caused the loss of functionality of my keyboard in the
event it was something I did or something I failed to do. If this is the case
I don't want to repeat my mistake.

I did not post this to the IE forum because it was my hardware that was
affected.

I would appreciate any help someone can give me concerning this matter.
Thank you in advance.

C.B.

Sorry, but I forgot to add something. After getting the functionality of my
keyboard back it seems to take forever to get anywhere on the internet. It's
as if someone or something has flushed my DNS cache. I realize this has
nothing to do with losing the functionality of my keyboard but it's possible
it is related to the IE crash. I don't know. I'm not that knowledgeable.

C.B.

Sorry, but I forgot to add something. After getting the functionality of my
keyboard back it seems to take forever to get anywhere on the internet. It's
as if someone or something has flushed my DNS cache. I realize this has
nothing to do with losing the functionality of my keyboard but it's possible
it is related to the IE crash. I don't know. I'm not that knowledgeable.

C.B.