Vista - upgrade to Vista now HTPC keyboard is werd

ok... just upgraded my HTPC to Vista Ultimate x64. All works great, with one exception.

My keyboard, which is a Xgene RF trackball keyboard is doing weird stuff. The mouse pointer/trackball moves, but if I try to click with the mouse button to select a window, or a button, nothing happens. If I hit the DOWN arrow, then try to select a window it seems to work then. Also, when entering text into a box, like a password or username box, sometimes after three letters it stops entering text and the mouse becomes a directional arrow.



there was no driver for the keyboard..it always worked fine under XP with the default driver that XP loaded. This is my first jump ino Vista,so I duno what to look at as far as drivers and places to look!

Before I look into a new keyboard, anyone have an ideas? I looked for a webite for xgene an it seems to have gone away...

Thanks!

There's two problems with Vista,

1 - Compatable Drivers, and...
2 - Vista64 bit drivers (64 bit drivers in general)

Either way if you cannot find drivers for either 32 or 64 bit, then there may not be any drivers for your keyboard under Vista, and in that case, yes...you'll need to upgrade your keyboard.

Did you look to see if there were 32bit vista drivers? They "might" work under 64.

My suggestion to anyone thinking of moving to Vista64 or even Vista for that matter is to make sure they have fairly recent hardware and/or software. Especially when moving to Vista 64!!! A little research comes in handy here.

Not to be condescending, a lot of folks make that mistake...including yours truly

Microsoft does provide a software compatibility tool to scan you computer and list the probable items to cause you problems under Vista, but don’t have the link at the moment. You can Google “Vista Compatibility tool” and find the download link. While you’re at it Google your keyboard for a solution as well.

Hope this helps or points you in the right direction.

Hi SwissyJim.

It appears that your keyboard is not supported by Vista, or at least not entirely. You are probably running off the default driver, which would not support all functions.

When you check under Start Menu > Control Panel > Device Manager > Keyboards, what is listed? Is it a Standard PS/2 Keyboard? If so, this is the default driver.

Also, can you provide more information on your exact keyboard so we may be able to pinpoint some drivers? I've found multiple XGen RF's including this and this.

Thank you!

Well... not sure it's the keyboard. Plugged my laptop mouse into it and it does the same damn thing. I have to Alt-Tab to change windows and more often and not as soon as I click anywhere in that window, that window is no longer selected and the mouse/trackball on the keyboard will not select any links, buttons or whatever...??? Only the directional arrows and TAB do anything. WTH?!

could the USB on my MB be going bad? bad drivers? (DFI Lanparty Expert NF4) It's driving me nuts! I've updated to the latest NVidia nForce drivers, and no luck. Although updating seems to make it a little better... if there is only one window (of anything) open it seems to work normally 90% of the time. And that includes the trackball/mouse clicks with the Xgene trackball keyboard (it's the second link, from NewEgg, although it was cheaper when I bought it!) or the laptop mouse. And it's been a GREAT keyboard... works awesome with my HTPC until my (poor?) desicion to upgrade to Vista...

Under the drivers for the keyboard it lists HID device if that helps

I also tried my Logitech MCE USB keyboard/Mouse combo and it did the same thing... help? before I do something stupid and get a different motherboard...