wired, USB Keyboard stops responding

[Spoe71]

Thank you to anyone who might help me brainstorm this issue. I am always quite grateful to the TW community for all its wonderful help and insight and of course for all the magnificent moddingcontributions that have kept this game alive and fresh for so very long.

I have an odd problem with M2TW: Gold Edition. My keyboard (wired, USB, logitechK120--very basic keyboard) randomly stops responding.

I notice it most when I use the console a lot, but that may be inconsequential because that's the only time I use the keyboard; the rest of the time I use the mouse.

When it happens, the keyboard completely stops responding to any key-press whatsoever. Not even Num Lock or Cap Lock will respond.

If I unplug the keyboard from one USB port to another, the computer freezes. After a restart, everything is fine again for a while. Oddly, once the keyboardstops responding, the problem can crop up in other programs (like MS Word orNotepad). It just stops. Period. Nothing short of rolling back to a restore point prior to installing the game will restore keyboard stability.

After the last roll-back, I did a full virus scan (no problems), ran Check Disk (no problems), ran a memory test (no problems), and Defragged the HDD (it was 10% fragmented. I suspect that was because of the restore job; the defragmentation program runs weekly. I am confident the HDD was not fragmented when the game was last installed because of this).

It is hard to recreate the issue, but it does seem stable in safe mode, and I have had M2TW uninstalled for several days now with no problems (so far---fingers crossed!).

Oddly,this problem never happened for the year or so that M2TW: Gold was idle on my computer, meaning I didn't play it for a very long time, and even before that, when I did play it regularly, I never experienced this issue (and I've always been fairly abusive with the console), but that was before I ever put theStainless Steel or Third Age mods on the computer--it was just the vanilla game version that came with the PC DVD M2TW Gold Edition with no additional downloads whatsoever.

I do not know if it happens with just the base game and kingdoms because Stainless Steel 6.4 and Third Age 3.2 were both installed when the issue began. The problem occurred with both mods.

I am not sure if I have Kingdoms 1.5 with the retail version I have. I do not currently have the game installed to check that. After doing some research, it seems the retail Gold version does not come with the 1.5 kingdoms patch, but I did find a place to download it. Could this be the issue?

Windows reports the keyboard drivers are up-to-date.

Since it is not a Microsoft keyboard, I have not tried to install the latest Intellitype drivers.

The game was installed in users/public/games directory, and I always play as administrator. I do not recall, however, if I installed the game with UAC turned off, and I'm confident I have never turned UAC off just to play the game; however, I am not tech-savvy enough to know if that can be an issue.

Additionally, I don't think I set the launcher up to run in any compatibility mode that I can remember. I probably did since the game always ran fine, but that could be because it was installed in the public\games directory, which has much less security than other directories (or so I gather).

The mouse and all other devices (speakers, etc.) are not affected when the issue happens---only the keyboard.

I tried three different keyboards; they all experienced the issue, even when usingdifferent USB ports. I have yet to recreate the issue when M2TW is uninstalled, but the only way I havefound to restore keyboard stability is to roll back to a restore point prior toinstalling M2TW.

One final note, when the problem would happen, it seems like it was usually when my typing got a bit sloppy (where I may have, for example, hit two keys at once,but my memory may not be entirely accurate there. My typing has gotten sloppyin other cases, such as when writing a paper or an email, but my keyboard hasnever frozen up because of it). I mention this because I don't know if keyboards have a cache that can fill up. I've never read anything about that, but that doesn't mean anything.

Again, I do appreciate any help anyone might suggest. I love the game, but I am afraid to install it again for fear of causing irreparable damage without first consulting you all. Thank you.

PS: also(I'm not sure if this matters), I recently re-installed Rome Total War Gold Edition and the Extended Greek Mod (this is the first Rome game, not thesecond). So far I have not had any problems with it. I have purposefully been abusing the cheat console to try to recreate the problem, but it seems quite stable. This may not matter, though, since that's an entirely different game.

[irishron]

This may sound odd but how much ram do you have, what version of Windows, and what graphics settings do you love for SS and TATW?

It could be nothing more than running out of memory believe it or not. Old RTW generally uses only ~60% the memory at its worst what Medoeval2 can consume.

[Spoe71]

Thanks for responding, Irishron. I have a win 7 64-bit system, 8 gb ram, a Radeon HD 5800 1 gb card. I usually play the game on "high" settings with normal unit sizes (though the problem always occurs on the campaign map, never the battle map, but that said, I ONLY use the keyboard on the campaign map, so that might not matter).

If the game is using up all the memory, do you suppose that would carry over to other program functions as well? For example, once the problem shows up in M2TW, I am likely to lose keyboard functionality in other endeavors as well, such as using MS Word or a Google search. As I stated earlier, that behavior will continue until I use system restore.

It's all very strange

[irishron]

Maybe you and I have the same problem but two different keyboards. I have a beat up E-Machines multimedia keyboard and every so often, random as it gets, the game's cursor changes shape and trying to find the point is a pain in the ass.

Sometimes if I use it to finish a turn ti will revert back to the game's cursor. Most of the time, it is do a quick save, exit, and restart my computer.

I use the console a lot, too. Maybe a game bug left by CA. Possible.

[Spoe71]

I suppose that is quite possible, but what gets me is that this problem has only recently showed up after years of playing the game. I know that doesn't mean much though---computers and programs are like that because of all the updating they go through almost all the time. Do you know if the problem you're having happens with the vanilla game only, or does it happen only when you are playing a mod?

[irishron]

I have not played vanilla since before the 1.2 patch was released. It's been a mod of or another. My mod is more vanilla related than most but it is Kingdoms based and I have ahad when Mongols or Timurids go back to horde use over a gig of memory.
My computer specs are almost on par with yours so results should be comparable except for one big difference. My keyboard still has the old PS2 connection if you remember those. I have not upgraded to USB yet but might get forced into it.

[Spoe71]

hehe yes, I do remember the ps/2 connections Well, since you and I both appear to be a bit puzzled here, I'll post the problem over on the TATW and SS pages and see what comes up. If I get anything, I'll repost the responses here in hopes that they might be helpful to you as well.

Just out of curiosity, what is the date on your keyboard driver? Mine says 2006, but windows reports that 2006 is the latest driver for a standard keyboard. That seems fairly odd given how often other programs (like Windows itself) are updated.

[irishron]

Generic Windows keyboard driver June 21, 2006.

[Spoe71]

yup. Same for me. I'll let you know as soon as I get something from the SS or TATW forums; maybe they'll have something.

[Spoe71]

Well, irishron, if you're still periodically checking this thread, it looks like perhaps my issue isn't related to TW at all but may be a HDD issue I was able to recreate the problem without any trace of TW on the drive at all, which pretty much put TWC, Stainless Steel, and TATW in the clear. I'm still under warranty, so in a few days my new drive should be here. We'll see if that fixes it I really appreciate you trying to help me out here. Very nice of you. May the lands tremble in fear of your massive armies!

[irishron]

Thank you for the feedback. You could be right. I have a bad habit of having more than one harddrive installed and not being particular about the wiring. Some onther issues came up and dug out the motherboard's manual. The pics and descriptions leave a lot to be desired but on a third try I think I have them sorted out. So far no funny mouse icons.

Yes, keep in touch and let us know how it goes.