USB Keyboard not responding properly

I have a Dell Diminsion E310 with USB keyboard and USB mouse.
Windows XP Media Center 2005

Both work well in safe mode. However, in regular mode the keyboard does not - mouse does.
If you hit a key all you get is an audible click unless you continue to hold the key down...after the click and a small delay the character will display.

Under device manager are 2 entries for Human Interface Device, I'm assuming keyboard and mouse. I uninstalled both and let XP reinstall to no avail.

Any ideas on what to try next?
SpyBot shows no results.

 

Try setting Repeat Delay and/or Repeat Rate of Keyboard in Control Panel. It may release your matter.

 

Tried the keyboard repeat rate, setting it on lowest delay and fasted repeat and that did not do the trick.
The beep or click I refer to is something that doesn't happen in safe mode, nor does it happen on any keyboard I've ever used.
If I want a charater, I have to hold down the key for 2-3 seconds, of which I get the beep as soon as I hit the key and the character pops up after the 2-3 seconds. If I keep it held down I get continuous beeps and the repeat does kick in putting characters up quicker.
Any other ideas?

 

Arie,

As stated in first post, I did go to system props and unistalled both drivers, mouse and keyboard, rebooted and let windows do it's thing. it went through the process and the mouse came to life but same problem with keyboard. I wasm though, never prompted for files or cd. I even went into safe mode and wiped out devices that show up there sometimes that don't in regular mode.

You stated download the latest driver. I could use some help there...
It's Dell's USB keyboard that came with the E310 and there is nothing on their site for this...all they have is drivers for wireless keyboard. Which files can I manually delete that will force windows to reinstall a good copy of the drivers required? Maybe mine are just corrupt and not being restored when I delete in system properties.

I started to run sfc /scannow with the cd in when I left for work - I hope to see some result there. If not, I'd like to try what you suggest next.

 

I've tried the keyboard in another port - same problem.
I tried the same keyboard on another computer - it works.
Just went into safe mode to wipe system props for it again and now it clicks in safe mode...weird.

I'm sure I've got this nailed down to a driver issue, but there is no disc for the keyboard. Something is corrupt on the system.
I deleted all the hid*.* files in system32/drivers hoping I'd be prompted for a cd when it tried to install again, but so far nothing.

Can someone help to tell me which files I can wipe and which devices I can scrub so that windows thinks this is a brand new install and ask me for the windows cd? Hopefully this will get a good copy of the correct driver.

Or...can someone help me to check if there's a conflict between this device? It almost sounds like an inturrupt issue. Remember the headaches with windows 98?!

 

Arie - You must be on the right track. Safe Mode uses "basic" drivers on purpose to try to to avoid special purpose drivers that might be corrupted. How can Joe Locke figure out what USB drivers are being additionally loaded and may be causing the problem ? Next, how can he reinstall them, perhaps one-by-one, until the problem is cured ?

 

I'm uncertain what this MS HotFix might fix ....

The Usbser.sys driver may not load when a USB device uses an IAD to define a function that has multiple interfaces, and this function uses the Usbser.sys driver file in Windows XP

Above Hotfix is by online Request only. Could contact MS and present your problem .. the worst they can say, not applicable to problem.