USB Internet KB: Special keys failed

On my WinXP PC I have a Microsoft USB Internet KB. I suddenly lost
the use of the special keys, like 'Calculator', 'My Computer', etc. I
tried uninstalling it from Device Manager>Keyboards, but after reboot
and automatic reinstall that made no difference.

I then tried scandisk /f, and also run>sfc scannow, but still no
change. In Update Driver, I then tried changing from USB KB to 'HID',
which brought up lots of extra entries, but seemed to make matters
worse. Uninstalled each of those entries and rebooted. After the
automatic reinstall of Microsoft USB Internet KB, to my surprise the
special keys are working again. Yet the first re-install failed to
achieve that!

I use Calculator a lot, so I'm glad I have it back. But I'd like
to know what's going on, in case it happens again. Any ideas anyone
please?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Terry Pinnell wrote:

> On my WinXP PC I have a Microsoft USB Internet KB. I suddenly lost
> the use of the special keys, like 'Calculator', 'My Computer', etc. I
> tried uninstalling it from Device Manager>Keyboards, but after reboot
> and automatic reinstall that made no difference.
>
> I then tried scandisk /f, and also run>sfc scannow, but still no
> change. In Update Driver, I then tried changing from USB KB to 'HID',
> which brought up lots of extra entries, but seemed to make matters
> worse. Uninstalled each of those entries and rebooted. After the
> automatic reinstall of Microsoft USB Internet KB, to my surprise the
> special keys are working again. Yet the first re-install failed to
> achieve that!
>
> I use Calculator a lot, so I'm glad I have it back. But I'd like
> to know what's going on, in case it happens again. Any ideas anyone
> please?
>
Doesn't help with explanation, but I've had similar with a brand-x
multimedia keyboard, and had to do a full power down to reset it. seemed
to be a electronic fault in the keyboard itself. In the end I replaced it