Keyboard not working - error code 38

[Master-Blaster]

Hello friends, there is some problem with my keyboard. When I am using it I am not able to access my keyboard. I had tried to check the cables also which looks to be properly attached. I am quiet frustrated by using on screen keyboard. It is very slow and not easy to control through mouse. I am having a Windows operating system. I am getting a error that cannot load the device driver for this keyboard due to old instance of the device driver is still in memory. Windows throws an error Code 38. What to do.

[Hardwareman]

I suppose this problem is associated with hijacked kbdhid.sys file. I had seen this before. You can fix this by replacing the file form other working system. A system which has the same operating system that you have. You have to just copy the files from that pc and then you have to replace that in your existing one. If you get any error for that then you have to do the same thing in safe mode.

[Fabian]

Try re-installing the printer from Device Manager. For which you have to right click on your computer and then click on manage. There on the left you can see Device Manager. Just right click on the keyboard and choose un-install. And then reboot your pc. The printer will be re-installed and the issue can be resolved. I think that is the fastest way of fixing the problem. If this fails then you have to try changing the usb port of your pc. Use another one and test once again.

[deoWo]

You have to use HijackThis antivirus application which is developed by the Trend Micro.

To analyze your computer, start HijackThis and run a scan. See the Quick Start Guide [link to Quick Start, FAQs and Feedback] for help in running a scan. HijackThis will display a list of areas on your computer that might have been changed by spyware. Do not change any settings if you are unsure of what to do. There are many popular support forums on the web that provide free technical assistance by using HijackThis log files to diagnose an infected computer.

[wb9623]

Most likely your system is not infected. There appears to be a problem with kbdhid.sys on some usb/wireless keyboards when the system comes out of standby. The driver does not get unloaded when going to sleep, possibly because the keyboard is configured to wake the computer. The system fails to reload the driver on wake because it is already running. Irritating but mostly harmless. Until it gets resolved for real you can go into device manager, disable the HID Keyboard Device (the one that is failing) and immediately reenable it. It should work then.

[duricic]

Hello friends, There is some problem with my keyboard when I am using it. I cannot able to access my keyboard; I get frustrated by using on screen keyboard. Windows operating system cannot load the device driver for this keyboard due to old instance of the device driver is still in memory. Windows throws an error Code 38. I want to solve this problem as soon as possible. Please help me.

This is what I found. Use another computer and download Microsoft Malicious Software Remover. Do a complete scan. After it finishes. Reboot to a install disk. Press the "R" key to get into recovery after it loads the drivers. Use your install disk to recover your keyboard drivers. expand(drive letter):\i386\keyboard.sy_ & all related keyboard files with the _ at the end into your windows\system32 directory. (you can do a dir command in i386 folder to see which files are relevant) This restores all keyboard related files. Type exit once they are all restored. Then it should work.

[Noct]

The Problem (first person):
I’ve used the G15 keyboard for about three months and it’s been working perfectly fine. One day, none of the buttons stopped working other than the Gkeys and the LCD display. I plugged the G15 into my laptop and it worked fine. The G15 also worked fine in safe mode on my desktop. I plugged a regular PS/2 keyboard and that worked fine on the desktop. So at that point I suspected something wrong with the USB or the USB ports. I went to troubleshooting and I did all the rebooting/device managing (more than a couple times). None of that worked. It was not until I started searching on forums on google that I suspected that the problem is probably virus related since the pages I looked for kept redirecting to pages that were totally non-relevant. From then on, instead of searching for keywords like “G15 keyboard not working”, “G15 HID code 38”, and “G15 driver”, I was searching for a virus that redirects search engines.

The Cause:
The virus’ name is directly related to the second issue it causes. It’s called the “Google Redirect” and it’s a Trojan virus that not only interferes with search engines (super irritating), but also damages your registry making it very harmful to your computer. The damage it did to your registry is the reason why your keyboard failed to function.

The Solution (finally):
So what does your keyboard malfunctioning from A-Z and one-three this mean? It means it’s time to clean up your beloved computer. The problem is this nasty virus is undetectable on MalwareBtyes, Adaware, McAfee, SuperAntiSpyware, NortonAntiVirus, AVG, and plenty more of these types of softwares. No wonder you think it’s your keyboard’s fault! There are two ways to remove the virus. One way is to use a long process method involving logs etc. with a program called combofix. This method requires someone to guide you as they read the logs since one wrong move could cause you to do something critically harmful to your computer. The second method is to straight up assassinate the virus with a program called Hitman Pro 3.5. It’s a free 30 day trial that you’ll only need for about 5 minutes. This next step I’m not so sure if it’s necessary since I didn’t test my keyboard until after I did it. What I did after deleting the virus was I downloaded and used RegistryBooster 2010. This program repairs and cleans up your registry which can enhance preformance. I thought that since the device manager is registry related, I’d give it a run. The trial version only removes 15 problems and the program found about 800. Getting a paid version or using another registry tool is up to you.

Conclusion:
I did a couple hours of work and guess what? I typed all of this out on my G15! I hope everyone who came across this painful problem will find this post and save a couple hours. Reformatting the entire computer was clearly something I was trying to avoid (I read somewhere that it works. I guess it should since doing would remove the virus and clean your registry; however, that’s spending a lot of time. Definitely not something gamers want to do). Thanks for reading and don’t give up!