Help! Alt & B ?????

[rnegde]

Does anyone know what happens in win98 if you hit the alt & B key at the desktop? My dad did that and now the screen just comes up blank. I'm going over there tomorrow and see what I can do, but I've never heard of this key combination and don't know what it would do. Any help or pointers would be appreciated!!

 

[MiggyD]

I, too, have not heard of this.

My only thought on this is that maybe he was in a program and accidently pressed too many keys (ex: in Word you can still use Ctrl & B for un/bolding words).

Please keep us posted. Thanks in advance. --MiggyD

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

 

[rnegde]

He was not in a program at all. He was at the desktop. That much we are sure of, the only thing I wonder about is if he hit some other key along with those two. He is pretty careful about what keys he hits. Mom writes down instructions for him to work in his programs and stuff. This time he just forgot to open the program first! Hopefully, it won't mean a reformat!

 

[mbarron]

Is it possible that he hit the "flying" window key between the Ctrl and Alt key? It may be some kind of bizarre shortcut key combination.

Mike

 

[LadyH]

I hit the alt-b on one of my systems and had nothing happen, hitting the Windows key and B did nothing as well...wonder if it was something he was working with...Did powering the system off resolve the issue?

pcheather@yahoo.com

 

[rnegde]

Well, the saga deepens....it turns out that he did hit the windows key and something. What's wierd is that mom can't even get the machine to boot off of a floppy! She said she thought she heard the memory count but can't tell if the HD is running or not...Could some key combination actually blow up BIOS???

 

[Cassaro]

As far as I know there is no key combination that would reset your bios. I'm starting to wonder if a virus my be the problem. Was your dad working on the machine for awhile or did this happen right after boot up? Chuck
tek-tips@aspenpkg.com

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[MiggyD]

Wow that's odd. But it does sound like viral activity.

Can you confirm the HD is/is not working? Have you already attempted to access the BIOS? <-- most likely this is the culpurit since no boot from floopy...it's like the system doesn't know what its got.

Let us know what else have you already tried.
--MiggyD

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

 

[MiggyD]

Have you fixed this problem? --MiggyD

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

 

[rnegde]

Sorry, I meant to post this a couple of days ago, but I got busy and forgot! What happen was that the modem took a hit and it fried the motherboard. Or at least it fried the bios, I guess. That's why it wouldn't boot or count memory or anything. So as it turns out, the fact that he was using a shortcut key at the time was just coincidence. The memory chips are still good and the harddrive is ok, but I can't check the processor because I don't have a MB that I can try it in. There just going to order a new one and I'll salvage all I can off the thing, now all I need is a motherboard that will take a 400mhz chip! Anyway, thanks for everyone ideas. I think if they hadn't told me about the whole shortcut key stuff then the real problem would have been found sooner. Ah...wild goose chases...gotta love em!!! Hope everyone is having a good day!!
Cya....
Robert

 

[MiggyD]

Wow! the modem eh? I think I would have told mine to kick it around the block a bit. LOL
Good job, rnegde.

Guess MS saved themselves from yet another lawsuit huh? LOL --MiggyD

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.