Fixes for Wireless Keyboard Blue Screen Crashes - POST HERE

Question

Fixes for Wireless Keyboard Blue Screen Crashes - POST HERE

This thread is for posting possible SOLUTIONS and FIXES to the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue that occurs when using Boot Camp on Windows 7 with the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

SYMPTOMS: When using the Apple Wireless keyboard with Windows 7 (for example), you'll often get a BSOD upon first keystroke when coming out of sleep or an idle period.

SETUP: Boot Camp 3.1, Snow Leopard, Windows 7 on a fairly current iMac (2009).

Posted on Aug 11, 2010 7:23 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 11, 2010 7:31 AM in response to BurlingameMac

Found a potential solution on this forum (untested):

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprohardware/thread/1f77d466 -3c43-430c-aae3-7a821e77ff64

From the thread:

Also having this issue, however, I may or may not have stumbled across a solution. I uninstalled the Apple Keyboard driver and the "Boot Camp Services" program. I restarted, inserted my Snow Leopard disc and copied the Keyboard driver and the "Boot Camp Services" (NOT the complete Boot Camp installer). Then, I right clicked on the each of the installers, set them in Compatability mode for Windows Vista and reinstalled them both.

This SEEMS to work, but only if I set my start up disk to Windows, boot Windows, let it log in, then restart the computer. After the second restart, the blue screens don't appear to show up until the next time I run OS X. In other words, it takes 2 Windows boots for the keyboard to work properly. If I only let it boot up once after using OS X, it'll eventually give me a blue screen. So far, with 2 boots, I have not seen a blue screen.

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Answer 2

Aug 11, 2010 7:33 AM in response to BurlingameMac

Another thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2233607&tstart=0

Possible solution posted from the thread (untested):

Figured this one out myself. I used the default bluetooth drivers from Windows 7, uninstalled Apple Bluetooth and Apple Bluetooth enabler drivers, as well as Apple Keyboard driver that were included with Snow Leopard. Then, I popped in my Leopard CD and installed the Apple Keyboard driver from there. Pairing works flawlessly, everything's working good.

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Answer 3

Aug 21, 2010 6:09 PM in response to BurlingameMac

Another similar one to above (from same author) - untested:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2193838&tstart=150

Had a similar problem, but the cause for me was the Wireless Keyboard driver of Boot Camp 3.0. Removed the keyboard driver from 3.0, took the Keyboard driver off of my Leopard 10.5 disc and installed it instead. Works bulletproof now.

Try replacing your trackpad driver with an older Boot Camp driver and see what you get.

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Answer 4

mackaycs

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2010 1:34 PM in response to BurlingameMac

Well, I've just left my mac mini for an hour and i'm finally typing without BSOD !

So I tried a few things suggested such as deleting my bluetooth and keyboard devices from device manager. But on restart they just reinstall with same old anyway. There's a small % chance that this fixed it but my bet is that disabling the devices from going into sleep mode in the first place is the key.

So can someone please try following:

In Device Manager - check keyboards (I have 2 for some strange reason) all have 'allow computer to turn off this device' unchecked (mine are greyed out too now but unsure if that was always the case)

Now check that all bluetooth devices (I have an "Apple Built-In Bluetooth" device and a "Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator". Under Power Management, again make sure 'allow computer to turn off this device' is unchecked on both devices.

If the bug is that Win7 crashes only when the keyboard comes out of sleep, I think you just have to stop it sleeping in the first place.

I'll keep testing mine over the next few days and see if i get any more BSOD - but I was getting them very frequently so looking promising so far...

Craig

Message was edited by: mackaycs

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Answer 5

mackaycs

Level 1

0 points

Sep 19, 2010 7:44 AM in response to mackaycs

Just to follow the above post, disabling power save OR reinstalling drivers has definitely worked, can't be definite which- but I've not had a single BSOD since.

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Answer 6

Oct 28, 2010 11:03 AM in response to mackaycs

Okay, I am having the exact same problem as the rest of you. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on a Mac Mini and when my Apple Wireless keyboard falls asleep, pressing a key on it causes a Windows 7 BSOD. None of the previously mentioned fixes has been helpful. I think the reason that they haven't been helpful is the weird nomenclature across all the different windows versions. For instance, my Windows 7 doesn't have a "Device Manager", instead it's "Devices and Printers". There are also no "Bluetooth Radios" it's "Generic Bluetooth Adapter". But I digress.

Turning off power management through the bluetooth options definitely did not help me out at all. The BSOD just kept on showing up.

Okay, so now I may have found an actual fix to this problem. I want to be very specific about exactly what I did and how everything is named and set up in my Windows install.

First, from the start menu I selected "Devices and Printers". This opened a window with the following path laid out in the address bar "Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers >". From here I clicked on an icon of a keyboard that was named "Apple Wireless Keyboard". This opened a new window named "Apple Wireless Keyboard Properties". I clicked on the "Hardware" tab. There are four "Device Functions:" listed: "Bluetooth HID Device", "HID Keyboard Device", "HID-compliant consumer control device", and "HID-compliant consumer control device".

I click on "HID Keyboard Device" and then click the "Properties" button. Another window opens. Here it says the Driver Provider is "Apple". I now click the "Uninstall" button. It asks me if I'm sure I want to do this and I say yes. It asks me if I want to restart the computer and I say yes.

After restart, It asks me if I want to restart again and I say yes. Now, when I go back into the "Apple Wireless Keyboard Properties", there is still an "HID Keyboard Device" driver. However, when I check its properties it now says the Driver Provider is "Microsoft".

Everything seems to be working now. There seems to be no BSOD. The special function keys on the keyboard like volume control don't actually control the volume now. They just act like regular function keys. That may be an issue for you, but not for me. I just want to check to see how my websites render in IE and not have to restart windows every 15 minutes.

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