USB keyboard randomly 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 modding contributions that have kept this game alive and fresh for so very long.

I have an odd problem with PC DVD M2TW: Gold Edition. My keyboard (USB, logitech K120--very basic keyboard) randomly stops responding to all key-presses. Mouse functionality remains; I can even continue playing the game (clicking the turn button, looking at unit-card information, directing troops, etc.). It happens when I use the console a lot for either mod (SS or TATW), but that may be inconsequential because that's the only time I use the keyboard; the rest of the time I use the mouse.

I have a Win-7 64-bit system, 8 GB ram, Radeon HD 5800 1GB graphics card, and I usually play the game on high graphics settings, normal unit sizes, with 1600x900 resolution for both maps. I use SS 6.4 (no submods) and TATW 3.2 (latest MOS submod).

I do not remember this problem happening when I only had SS 6.4 installed, but I don't recall playing that much without both mods installed either (I didn't even know there were mods for this game for the longest time). Could there be compatibility issues with TATW, perhaps? I do not remember having this issue when I only played the Vanilla game with Kingdoms installed, but I do not think I ever installed the Kingdoms 1.5 patch either (I didn't realize the Gold Edition PC DVD game was not 1.5 until just recently after doing some reading).

After the problem first shows up in the game, it will affect keyboard functionality on any program (Google searches, MS Word, etc.) until I reset the computer to the restore point prior to installing M2TW. The mouse is unaffected, and changing USB ports for the keyboard has no effect except to cause a complete computer freeze, requring a cold restart. All drivers report they are up to date; however, the keyboard driver, even tough it says "up to date," is from 2006, which seems odd.

I have conducted a full virus scan, ran Chk Disk, defragmented the HDD, let PC Doctor do its thing, ran a memory test, let CCCleaner run--no problems have been found.
Finally, after the problem shows up and I do a restart, the keyboard seems fine in safe mode (I can't seem to make the problem happen there). The only way to ensure keyboard stability is to use the system restore function.

I have tried three different keyboards; all experience the issue but they work on my other machine (which does not have any games on it).

What seems so odd about this is that once the problem happens, it continues on through other programs as well, though I am not tech-savvy enough to know what that might mean.

Thanks for anyone who'll offer insight into this. I know you don't have to.

[Spoe71]

UPDATE: well, after more extensive testing, this issue may not be related to TW, SS, or TATW; evidence now points toward a bad HDD. I'll update again if the new HDD fixes the issue.