I have tried EVERYTHING I've found suggested EVERYwhere about getting NumLock to be off at boot, to no avail. I added a Keyboard item in the Registry as suggested in a number of places and it has no effect. I don't have anything in the registry about keyboard indicators to modify, and the BIOS doesn't offer me the option to boot with NumLock off. The HP site doesn't give me any info on how to do this. HELP! How do I get the computer to boot with NumLock OFF????

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

If your BIOS Setup does not include an option to turn off the NumLock key upon (re)boot, 
you can do so by altering your Windows 95/98/ME Registry.

To have your NumLock key turned ON or OFF on startup, open Regedit and:
go to (valid only for the current user):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Microsoft Input Devices

or to (valid for all users):

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Microsoft Input Devices

Double-click on "Microsoft Input Devices" -> click New -> select Key -> name this 
new key "Keyboard" (no quotes) -> highlight "Keyboard" -> right-click on it -> click 
New -> select String Value -> type in NumLock -> click OK -> right-click on NumLock 
-> click Modify - > type ON to turn the NumLock key on or OFF to turn it off (case 
insensitive) -> click OK.

Note: This Registry modification works mostly with PS/2 and USB keyboards built by 
Microsoft, with MS IntelliType software installed, but may or may not work with other, 
3rd party, keyboards.

You can turn on/off the Caps Lock and/or Scroll Lock keys in a similar manner.

Add 2 new String Values under the same Registry subkey above and name them "CapsLock" 
and "ScrollLock" respectively (no quotes). Then double-click on each of them and 
type either ON or OFF.

Now close Regedit and then press F5, after left-clicking your mouse once into an 
empty Desktop area, so the changes can take effect without restarting Windows.

If you are using a CONFIG.SYS file (located in C:\ root) to boot up, you can also 
turn your NumLock key OFF by adding this line to your CONFIG.SYS (edit it with Notepad/Sysedit 
in Windows or EDIT.COM in DOS):

NUMLOCK=OFF

This CONFIG.SYS line turns NumLock back ON:

NUMLOCK=ON

Save your file and reboot.
Both these commands work with ANY keyboard and are case insensitive.

FYI: Open CONFIG.TXT (located in your Windows 9x/ME folder) using Notepad to read 
the details about all available CONFIG.SYS commands.

Iain

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I am re-trying this one, but I'm afraid it won't work because this is the one I just tried - we'll try once more to see if I somehow screwed it up. What can I do if this doesn't work??


On Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 1:52 pm, Iain wrote:

>If your BIOS Setup does not include an option to turn off the NumLock key upon (re)boot, 
>you can do so by altering your Windows 95/98/ME Registry.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Caroline, Try this utility:

http://home.plutonium.net/~bjackson/NumLock.zip

Regards,
Ron

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thank you I will try this as the registry hacks did not work. That light still stays ON on the keyboard!


On Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:33 pm, Ron wrote:
>Hi Caroline,
>Try this utility:
>

>http://home.plutonium.net/~bjackson/NumLock.zip
>

Regards,
>
Ron

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

It seems that what this utility does is totally disable the numlock key. That is a little more than I want to do! I want it to go off on boot but be available to me to turn on if I want. So this doesn't do what I need, either. Why is this so hard in ME? I have Windows 2000 at work and it was totally easy to solve there.


On Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:33 pm, Ron wrote:
>Hi Caroline,
>Try this utility:
>

>http://home.plutonium.net/~bjackson/NumLock.zip
>

Regards,
>
Ron

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Replace the Keyboard


On Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 8:03 am, Caroline wrote:
>I have tried EVERYTHING I've found suggested EVERYwhere about getting NumLock to
>be off at boot, to no avail. I added a Keyboard item in the Registry as suggested
>in a number of places and it has no effect. I don't have anything in the registry
>about keyboard indicators to modify, and the BIOS doesn't offer me the option to
>boot with NumLock off. The HP site doesn't give me any info on how to do this.
>HELP! How do I get the computer to boot with NumLock OFF????

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Caroline,
I agree that this shouldn't me this difficult. I've been using Winkey, a small utility written for Windows 3.1 in 1992. It controls the shift keys as well as Numlock and is still going strong in Windows Me. I'm sorry to say that its no longer available. Google, however, turned up a shareware program that sounds very similar. If you're willing to part with $10.00 for sMaRTcaPs it may be what you need. Here's the link:

http://www.phoebusllc.com/

Regards,
Ron

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I know you said you checked the BIOS, but check again. I had the same problem except I wanted mine ON whenever I booted up. I tried the Registry Edit, and the CONFIG.SYS edit, but neither worked. When you get into the BIOS setup, see if there is an ADVANCE SETTINGS option. If there is, then click on that and see if there is a BOOT SETTINGS option. If there is then you should see the option for changing the NUMLOCK setting to OFF at startup. Hope this helps. Good luck. Paul

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks to everyone who suggested fixes - sadly, not a single one worked - not the registry, not config.sys, not the BIOS - I looked again and have absolutely nothing about NUMLOCK anywhere. The utilities were all interesting but they all did a lot more than I actually wanted to do. I finally mailed HP tech support and this is what they said, take it or leave it: "Thank you for contacting the new HP. I understand that you wish to boot your Pavilion XG834 with Numlock off. When you boot your Pavilion PC, the Numlock feature gets ON by default. there is no such option to get it OFF when you boot your Pavilion PC." Isn't it nice to know that my machine is such an improvement over every preceding PC ever made. Sigh.


On Friday, September 6, 2002 at 7:51 pm, Paul wrote:
>I know you said you checked the BIOS, but check again. I had the same problem except
>I wanted mine ON whenever I booted up. I tried the Registry Edit, and the CONFIG.SYS
>edit, but neither worked. When you get into the BIOS setup, see if there is an ADVANCE
>SETTINGS option. If there is, then click on that and see if there is a BOOT SETTINGS
>option. If there is then you should see the option for changing the NUMLOCK setting
>to OFF at startup. Hope this helps. Good luck.
>
>Paul

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

My IBM Thinkpad powers up with NumLock on. I have a wireless keyboard that requires that it be off. Grr.. Can not set it off in BIOS nor winME bootup. Grrr..


On Monday, September 9, 2002 at 6:27 pm, Caroline wrote:
>Thanks to everyone who suggested fixes - sadly, not a single one worked - not the
>registry, not config.sys, not the BIOS - I looked again and have absolutely nothing
>about NUMLOCK anywhere. The utilities were all interesting but they all did a lot
>more than I actually wanted to do. I finally mailed HP tech support and this is
>what they said, take it or leave it:
>
>"Thank you for contacting the new HP.
>I understand that you wish to boot your Pavilion XG834 with Numlock off.
>When you boot your Pavilion PC, the Numlock feature gets ON by default.
>there is no such option to get it OFF when you boot your Pavilion PC."
>
>Isn't it nice to know that my machine is such an improvement over every preceding
>PC ever made. Sigh.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

The wonders of HP, i would reccomend that you scour the bios for the setting and also look for bios updates. The roblem with tech support people from companies like this is that they know their stuff but have very little room for improvisation, plus they are not really allowed to go past company policies. I would reccomend you start the system in safe mode and see if the light comes on, if it does it is more than likely bios based. If so worse case senario it's not in the options and no added bios release has been made with the change, then find a bios editor and hack your way to annoyance free computing.

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