[SOLVED] Unable to type in windows

[foxhound525]

As always, windows 10 has got issues that make no sense. About 2 weeks ago windows 10 stopped recognising most of my keyboard inputs. It will detect my logon password, keyboard shortcuts etc, but if I try to use the search function, or type in a windows application like stickynotes or file explorer then nothing happens. This doesn't affect third party programs like my browser fortunately. I did an update that weekend that caused win10 to start getting BSODs and at one point it wouldnt even recognise my password inputs, after rolling that back it's not so severe but still messed up. Some programs also take forever to open or just refuse to open. I tried to open a .png file about 30 minutes ago and it still hasn't done anything. This morning there were delays of about a minute before any program registered my inputs. I've tried using other usb ports too, makes no difference, and this problem randomly started where it wasn't an issue before.

As always, everything still works great on windows 7 (I'm dual booting). Everyone is always really condescending to people who still prefer 7, and I've been giving 10 the benefit of the doubt for months and its had nothing but problems and limitations with microsoft constantly adding to the issues with updates that also can't be trusted to not break your pc. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix any of this without doing a fresh install then I'll give it a go, but at the moment windows 7 is still looking like the better option even after getting used to some of the nicer features of 10.

PS if your only contribution to this post is going to be to mindlessly parrot that 7 is out of support, or that 7 is old, or that you wish me to conform to the win10 hivemind, don't bother. Constructive comments only please

AMD FX 8370
Corsair Vengeace low profile 2x 8gb
GTX 1060 6gb
2SSDs (OS drives, one is 7 one is 10)

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs.

Have you tried another known working keyboard on your computer? Or tried your keyboard on another known working computer. Determine if the problem follows the keyboard or stays with the current computer.

Make and model keyboard? Wireless keyboard: a weakening battery and/or degrading transceiver can cause problems.

And a faltering PSU can also result in all sorts of system misbehavior.

How full are the drives? If more than 70-80% (my limit) full then problems can arise. Especially if the drives have never been defragmented. (HDD only).

Has the case been opened for cleaning and maintenance? Blow out dust and debris, reseat all cables, cards, RAM, jumpers. Ensure that everything is fully and firmly in place.

And you can use Reliability History and Event Viewer to look for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that correspond with the BSODS and other issues.

Key is to methodically work through the necessary troubleshooting and narrow things down. Either directly or by elimination.

Note: Updates can be problematic. I never use the computer when Windows is doing updates even though that is supposedly safe to do. Just let Windows finish up and do the restart(s) as indicated.

 

[foxhound525]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs.

Have you tried another known working keyboard on your computer? Or tried your keyboard on another known working computer. Determine if the problem follows the keyboard or stays with the current computer.

Make and model keyboard? Wireless keyboard: a weakening battery and/or degrading transceiver can cause problems.

And a faltering PSU can also result in all sorts of system misbehavior.

How full are the drives? If more than 70-80% (my limit) full then problems can arise. Especially if the drives have never been defragmented. (HDD only).

Has the case been opened for cleaning and maintenance? Blow out dust and debris, reseat all cables, cards, RAM, jumpers. Ensure that everything is fully and firmly in place.

And you can use Reliability History and Event Viewer to look for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that correspond with the BSODS and other issues.

Key is to methodically work through the necessary troubleshooting and narrow things down. Either directly or by elimination.

Note: Updates can be problematic. I never use the computer when Windows is doing updates even though that is supposedly safe to do. Just let Windows finish up and do the restart(s) as indicated.

Well most of the hardware questions you mention are answered by the absence of these issues on windows 7 on the same machine. Its specifically windows 10. Windows is up to date, graphics driver is up to date too. Maybe I should try a disk defrag, it's a desperate gambit but worth a shot I guess.

Edit: I read that you shouldn't defrag an SSD

 

[Colif]

on the login screen, click on the power button in bottom right of screen
while holding left shift, click restart button
this restarts pc in advanced startup repair
lets see what its like in safe mode
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose start up options
click the restart button
choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
Pc will restart and load safe mode

is it normal here? if so, it could mean its either a driver causing problem or a startup program

to test the startup program idea, set PC up in a clean boot - you should be able to follow the below instructions in safe mode to set it up

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

I suspect its likely a program causing this, as if it were a driver it wouldn't work in browsers either.

 

[foxhound525]

Well I've tested a bunch of other keyboards, same issue. Tried other USB slots, same issue. I can still type in some windows things like using keyboard shortcuts, typing in the Run thing, command prompt etc. It's just win10 UI things I can't seem to type with.

I tried using some powershell commands I found online but that didn't work, I tried running ctfmon but I got this error

ctfmon.exe - Bad image

C:\\windows\system32\textinputmethodformatter.dll is either not designed to run on windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or software vendor for support. Error status 0xc000012f

Could this be related?

I'm going to try a minimal boot via msconfig and see if that makes a difference

Edit: After choosing Diagnostic startup in msconfig, I immediately got an error

ctfmon.exe - Success

Unknown Hard Error

[OK]

 

[Colif]

go into powershell
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth
and press enter
SFC fixes system files, second command cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files and restart PC

what motherboard?

Which windows you runs and works the best can really depend on the age of the hardware. Its always possible your PC is better suited to 7 than 10, as hardware makers may not offer the support to 10 they did for 7, on your hardware.

 

[foxhound525]

go into powershell
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth
and press enter
SFC fixes system files, second command cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files and restart PC

what motherboard?

Which windows you runs and works the best can really depend on the age of the hardware. Its always possible your PC is better suited to 7 than 10, as hardware makers may not offer the support to 10 they did for 7, on your hardware.

I'll have to try the SFC thing later today as I've had to switch back to 7 for now (for some reason win10 also wouldn't let me type my credentials into amazon workspaces)

But I have a Biostar TA970 plus version 5. with an AMD FX 8370. I updated the chipset drivers for win 10, updated the bios, nothing has had an effect. The weird thing is that I didn't have this issue before, it started around the time of a bad update pushed out by windows that they advised people to uninstall. I assumed it would get fixed in an update but several updates later and it's still broken.

 

[Colif]

curious what version of win 10 you are on
press WIn + r
type winver and press enter
(yes, I know, no kb... its funny, the alternate instructions don't work either)

how to get it using powershell - https://superuser.com/questions/1330269/how-to-get-os-version-through-powershell-with-wmi

or you know, start menu, Windows administrative tools, System Information
2nd line in app on right hand column is version

current version is 1909 build 18363.720

one fix could be a repair install. all it does is takes windows back to the basic version update. So say you on 1909, it removes all the cumulative updates and doesn't touch any other files - only touches windows files.
but you need to be on 1909 to run it as the fix requires a copy of the ISO and current ISO is 1909
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

 

[foxhound525]

curious what version of win 10 you are on
press WIn + r
type winver and press enter
(yes, I know, no kb... its funny, the alternate instructions don't work either)

how to get it using powershell - https://superuser.com/questions/1330269/how-to-get-os-version-through-powershell-with-wmi

or you know, start menu, Windows administrative tools, System Information
2nd line in app on right hand column is version

current version is 1909 build 18363.720

one fix could be a repair install. all it does is takes windows back to the basic version update. So say you on 1909, it removes all the cumulative updates and doesn't touch any other files - only touches windows files.
but you need to be on 1909 to run it as the fix requires a copy of the ISO and current ISO is 1909
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

I have the same windows version as it goes.

Weirdly, I tried that SFC command and got a message saying you must be an administrator running a console session in order to use the SFC utility. Which is weird as I am the only user on this system, and I am the administrator. I tried doing it via powershell -executionpolicy unrestriced and got the same message.

Edit: Found cmd and ran as admin, running the scan now

 

[foxhound525]

curious what version of win 10 you are on
press WIn + r
type winver and press enter
(yes, I know, no kb... its funny, the alternate instructions don't work either)

how to get it using powershell - https://superuser.com/questions/1330269/how-to-get-os-version-through-powershell-with-wmi

or you know, start menu, Windows administrative tools, System Information
2nd line in app on right hand column is version

current version is 1909 build 18363.720

one fix could be a repair install. all it does is takes windows back to the basic version update. So say you on 1909, it removes all the cumulative updates and doesn't touch any other files - only touches windows files.
but you need to be on 1909 to run it as the fix requires a copy of the ISO and current ISO is 1909
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

'
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.'

I tried the second command but got this;
'
'Repair-WindowsImage' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.'

 

[foxhound525]

I've got the log files and seen theres a bunch of corrupted files from windows defender, to that textinputformatter, to some NET framework stuff.

Unfortunately it's too long to post it here, and I'm a hardware guy, so I don't know what this signifies other than some files are messed up and windows doesn't know what to do with them.

 

[Colif]

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.'

I tried the second command but got this;
'
'Repair-WindowsImage' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.'

this is your problem.

you can try this as a solution to 2nd one, as if you tried to run that in CMD it could be the reason.
in command prompt (with admin rights)
copy/paste this in as spacing is important
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
and press enter

Now if you get an error asking for source, and since you on same version as I am...
Download a copy of the win 10 iso from Here - create ISO by telling it you want to make DVD - and then mount that ISO in file explorer (see Here) and then copy paste the below command into command prompt (admin)

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:X:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess
Where "X" is the drive letter where the ISO is located. Simply change the "X" to the correct drive letter

and then run SFC again, and restart PC, as it should now be able to fix the files it couldn't before. What DISM does is fixes the files SFC uses to repair windows. What the source command does is uses the files on the ISO to replace the ones it has that are corrupted.

 

[foxhound525]

this is your problem.

you can try this as a solution to 2nd one, as if you tried to run that in CMD it could be the reason.
in command prompt (with admin rights)
copy/paste this in as spacing is important
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
and press enter

Now if you get an error asking for source, and since you on same version as I am...
Download a copy of the win 10 iso from Here - create ISO by telling it you want to make DVD - and then mount that ISO in file explorer (see Here) and then copy paste the below command into command prompt (admin)

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:X:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess
Where "X" is the drive letter where the ISO is located. Simply change the "X" to the correct drive letter

and then run SFC again, and restart PC, as it should now be able to fix the files it couldn't before. What DISM does is fixes the files SFC uses to repair windows. What the source command does is uses the files on the ISO to replace the ones it has that are corrupted.

So I had a win10 recovery usb drive already, which I created using microsoft's recovery media creation tool about a week ago, so I told DISM to use that, but I still got an error.

'Error: 0x800f081f

The source files could not be found.
Use the "Source" option to specify the location of the files that are required to restore the feature. For more information on specifying a source location, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=243077.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log'

I'll have to try your ISO after work

 

[Colif]

this shows how to mount a USB, just skip over the parts about formatting it as it would already be in NTFS - https://www.onmsft.com/how-to/how-to-mount-removable-storage-devices-in-windows-10

 

[foxhound525]

this shows how to mount a USB, just skip over the parts about formatting it as it would already be in NTFS - https://www.onmsft.com/how-to/how-to-mount-removable-storage-devices-in-windows-10

I just redownloaded the win10 ISO using the media creation tool, remembered that I have daemon tools installed, so I mounted the image using daemon tools, and I still get the same error

Edit: DT mounts it as a UDF file system. I didn't know win10 has native ISO support so I might get rid of DT and try that.

Edit: Tried using File explorer and it still mounts it as a UDF file system.

Edit: Copied the Source folder to an almost empty NTFS drive I have for storage, amended the command to target that, same error.

Edit: Ran SFC again, and for no apparent reason, it actually worked! Search funtionality is back and I can type normally again!

Now I only have one or two minor issues left with windows 10!

 

[foxhound525]

this shows how to mount a USB, just skip over the parts about formatting it as it would already be in NTFS - https://www.onmsft.com/how-to/how-to-mount-removable-storage-devices-in-windows-10

Thank you so much for all of your help Colif, you absolute legend! I doubt I would have been able to fix this without you. I never realised how fundamental the search function is in windows till the b*stard broke!