Win 7 Pro X 64 SP1 Cant start On Screen Keyboard

[Magdalene]

Hi everyone,
Running Win 7 Pro X64 and am unable to launch the On Screen Keyboard either from Ease of access or by running the exe C:\Windows\System32\osk.exe. Just get pop up error box 'Could not start On Screen keyboard'.

Things Tried so far:

Run SFC /Scannow and all OK
Ran in both Safe and Clean Modes. Still same problem
Created new account to exclude a possible corrupt profile. Still same problem
Ran CHKDSK and third party Disc checker to eliminate HDD problems. All OK.
Checked permissions/size of osk.exe and corresponds to another machine.
Toggled PC Tablet Components feature and re-booted.
No Lock down prog installed just Avast Free and WinPatrol
Copied osk.exe from another machine to desktop and ran as admin.

All above to no avail.
At loss on how to proceed further, help please anybody.

Magdalene

[Boggin]

You seemed to have tried everything - does Event Viewer record anything for the error ?

[Magdalene]

Hi,
Thanks for prompt reply.

Not really familiar with event logs, could you walk me through how to capture what we are looking for please.

magdalene

[Boggin]

Go Start - type eventvwr and press enter.

When it has read the data and you see Critical, Error etc. - click on Error then on View All Instances of This Event in the lower right pane.

You will be presented with a list of date and time stamped errors with their Event ID numbers.

What I suggest is to reboot, making a note of the time then try to access the on screen keyboard and when you get the error message, go into Event Viewer where you will see the immediate time stamped errors.

Clicking on each will produce more info in the pane below and you can copy & paste each error into your reply box by clicking on them then on Copy/Copy details as text in the lower right pane - right click in the reply box and select Paste.

I noticed you have been receiving help on the Bleeping.com forum, but so far to no avail.

Did the machine come with Win 7 Pro pre-installed ?

[Boggin]

One other thing you don't have appeared to have tried is to run a command prompt as an admin and enter osk.exe

If it fails to run from there, it may produce an error code.

[Magdalene]

Hi Boggin,
Tried invoking from Cmd (elevated) and no error code,just same pop up 'Could not start on screen keyboard'

Event viewer shows nothing with 'ERROR'
That is to say No Critical, No Error and no Warnings in 'Overview and Summary'

Yes, you will see my post/s on Seven Forums and Sysnative as well, as this problem although minor in the scheme of things, seems to be
very difficult to pin down. Just grateful to all you guys on these forums for your time and trouble to help.

Magdalene.

[Boggin]

Did the machine come with Win 7 Pro ?

One other place to check for more info is reliability history.

Go Start - start to type reliability and press enter when View reliability history comes up where there may be a red cross on the days where it has failed to open.

[Magdalene]

Hi Boggin,

Machine is Lenovo Thinkpad E530c and came with Windows 7 X64 installed ie: OEM no installation disc.
I don't often have a use for OSK therefore its difficult to say when it stopped working, but roughly about a month ago. I keep a 'Changelog' detailing any changes I make so as to help in cases like this and cant see, or think of any changes made that might be relevant to this problem.

Magdalene

[Magdalene]

Sorry, forgot to mention no events at all in Reliability going back as far as possible.

[Boggin]

If it was that long ago then it is unlikely you will have restore points that go back that far.

I was thinking along the lines of a repair install which won't affect your personal stuff or installed programs, but you will need a product key tp activate it.

Is your COA sticker key still legible on the underside of the machine ?

If it is then go Start - type Slui 3 and press enter then enter that key which should return as activated.

You could then enter that key when prompted during the repair install.

I can supply you with a couple of Win 7 x64 Pro SP1 install disks if you want to try that - just PM me your address.

Okay on reliability - it was just a thought.

[Magdalene]

Hi Boggin,

Repair install:
I understand that personal stuff should not be affected but I have various settings  changes in place for things like removing libraries and removing unwanted right click context items etc:
I assume those would be reset?

Magdalene

[Boggin]

Probably - but those could be put back.

It depends upon how much you want to try and get your onscreen keyboard to work again.

[Magdalene]

Yes, to be honest having over the last year or so getting my system working exactly as I want it I'm loath to tempt fate with a repair install  for the sake of such a minor problem.
I have downloaded one of the many third party On Screen keyboard programs which works well so think that as no other problems I will continue to scratch my head.

Thank you so much for all the time and trouble you have given on this.

Magdalene

[Boggin]

You could create a system image first onto external media as a fall back before trying it, but if you don't want to go to the bother of setting it back up then as you say - just leave it with the 3rd party keyboard.

[Magdalene]

Will give that a try this weekend when have more time.
Thanks again for your help.

Magdalene

[Boggin]

What are you going to try if you don't have an install disk ?

[Magdalene]

Hi Boggin,
Just noticed that osk.exe is showing as running in task manager, in both Applications and Processes tabs, when osk is invoked from 'ease of access'
Then when OK is clicked in the pop-up box 'Could not start on screen keyboard' the entries disappear.
Is this any help to you? It confuses the hell out of me.

Magdalene.

[Magdalene]

Ps:
Forgot to mention have managed to get my hands on a disk from a friend, but would appreciate your thoughts on previous post first. (Task Manager) as always like to solve a problem and advance my learning of windows rather than just re-install. However sometimes ......


Magdalene

[Boggin]

I think that when you click on OK, that will cancel the operation so the process ends in Task Manager.

[Magdalene]

Yes think that's it, when the osk pop-up Could not start is acknowledged by clicking OK it terminates the process.
However presumably the process is running (as reported by task manager) so is the prog running but cant display its Window?

Magdalene

[Boggin]

I don't know the answer to that.

I don't think it would be a graphics problem but you could check to see if there's an update for your graphics driver.

I'll ask my Support to see if he's come across this problem before where the regular fixes didn't work.

[jpm]

There may be a security issue where you can't run certain programs in the  system32 directory. (some antivirus apps will do that to protect hijacks.)


go to C:\Windows\System32\osk.exe. and copy the osk.exe to another folder and see if it works.

If so, just make a short cut to the new copy and you should be fine.

[Magdalene]

Hi JPM,
Already tried that. Created new folder on desktop, copied OSK.exe to it and even ran as admin. No joy. Permissions by the way all correct.

Magdalene