Keyboard error after plugging Memory Card into Programmer

[HandTurnedMaple]

This is resolved, but I will post the solution here too.

After making my first carving, I brought the memory card back inside and plugged it back into the Programmer. My computer locked up tight. After a hard restart, my mouse (trackball actually) and keyboard didn't work. After a second restart, I got a keyboard error during reboot and still no keyboard or mouse (and 3 more hard restarts).

So I called Dell Support (its a 6-month old XPS 400). The diagnostics light on the front indicated a motherboard malfunction. And how happy I was to hear that. I plugged my wife's keyboard in and still no success.

To shorten this story, the problem seems to be that I overwhelmed the motherboard with too many USB devices (keyboard and trackball are both USB). The solution was to turn off the PC, unplug all USB devices, unplug the PC for 30 seconds. Then plug in the keyboard and mouse, boot the computer, and plug back in the peripherals one at a time.

I think it was just a freak thing, because I have had more USB devices than this plugged in before. But remember this if it happens to you.

[BoardSilly]

As with any USB device, use the Windows "Safely Remove Hardware" command before removing the memory card from its reader. Not doing so can corrupt the memory and I/O on the pc, which can cause lockups of the USB driver and interrupts. You can also potentially corrupt the data you wrote to the card due to background R/W's when removing. The memory card is a USB Mass Storage Device as far as Windows OS is concerned.

[HandTurnedMaple]

Good to know.