Just installed the Ergonomic 4000 and am having the usual situation with Hidserv. Thanks for the info.
Would any of you know if this Ipoint program is necessary? I had to install it with the Itype program, and both use up a nice amount of ram together. I can’t seem to disable Ipoint without losing my mouse adjustments. If I readjust the button controls, Ipoint starts again.
I was more than happy with the default optical mouse setup I had before
as it didn’t use much ram. Can I uninstall Ipoint and use the default mouse drivers, and will it have any effect on the keyboard functions?
I use a Logitech optical mouse, so I’m not sure why they force you to install Ipoint with the default setup program.
I have a feeling that the setup disk that came with the keyboard I bought about six months ago has been revised. The setup version on the disk is 6.0.250 and is dated July 7, 2006.
The current version that can be downloaded from the Microsoft site is v. 6.2.290.
Obviously, there must have been some fixes in the subsequent versions.
Does anyone know if running the disk that came with the Ergonomic 4000 might mean overwriting newer versions of already installed drivers that were installed with subsequent service packs?
Has anyone uninstallled their old software and upgraded with the software on the MS site?
i never found any help in this post for trouble getting the natural 4000 to work on win 2k? the special keys at the top work but not the main keyboard. everytime i plug it in it wants to reinstall the drivers and reboot. each time the darn thing never works. Thoughts?
I am a medical transcriptionist using the Microsoft 4000 Ergo Keboard and love it except for one major problem. Has anyone found a solution for the keyboard locking up when you have accidentally hit keys while waiting on a program (such as MS Word) to create a new document? The keyboard will literally lock up and no keys will function on it until I reboot the computer. After that, it is fine, but that is too time-consuming. I’d appreciate anyone letting me know what might unlock the keyboard. It is not a particular command I am hitting - it can be any key combination.
As far as the sound keys not working - I found that if I open the Microsoft 4000 ergo keyboard program and actually adjust something, such as the speed of the cursor, then apply and exit, my volume controls mysteriously reappear and work. I just use it; I didn’t create it, and this does fix that on my keyboard.
Thanks for any information you can give me. All in all, I really love this keyboard, and no, you can’t get one any blacker! LOL.
I have scoured the internet looking for the volume fix. After testing my keyboard on numerous other PC’s and having it work fine, I knew it was something specific to my PC and/or registry. Thanks so much!
I popped off the spacebar and lined the bottom ridges of it with felt from a craft store. The felt has a sticky backing so it was very easy. It took a few tries to get the proper areas but now the space bar is almost as quiet as the other keys. It’s still a bit stiff but at least it’s not extremely “clacky” like before.
I’ve had to switch to left-hand mousing because of wrist problems and one of the big pluses for the Natural Keyboard Pro was the ability to map Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to the two small ‘button keys’ near the sleep button. This allowed me to copy and paste without having to take my left hand off the mouse
I know those button keys are gone, but is this sort of mapping possible with the Natural Ergo 4000? I’d gladly give up some of the new keys above the numeric keypad (the =,(,) and whatever) to be able to keep the single-key copy and paste…
Wow-- here it is 2008 and the 2005 post from Gary regarding the volume issue has solved my problem! I have a 2006 eMachine running XP Media Center-- the factory keyboard finally crapped out on me, and I bought a Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 today. I have been searching the web and Microsoft support for HOURS trying to find a fix to no avail (and had to download InteliType Version 6.2-- still doesn’t come with the keyboard, and the packaging still touts that no software is needed, by the way). The software download got all my hotkeys working EXCEPT the volume up/down keys. Not being a tech-geek, and never having added values in my registry before, I was able to insert the string and value, reboot, and VOILA! Volume control at my fingertips. Gary, you are my hero…
Wow-- here it is 2008 and the 2005 post from Gary regarding the volume issue has solved my problem! I have a 2006 eMachine running XP Media Center-- the factory keyboard finally crapped out on me, and I bought a Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 today. I have been searching the web and Microsoft support for HOURS trying to find a fix to no avail (and had to download InteliType Version 6.2-- still doesn’t come with the keyboard, and the packaging still touts that no software is needed, by the way). The software download got all my hotkeys working EXCEPT the volume up/down keys. Not being a tech-geek, and never having added values in my registry before, I was able to insert the string and value, reboot, and VOILA! Volume control at my fingertips. Gary, you are my hero…
Need to get the Microsoft Ergonomic Natural 4000 driver.
I bought it and it doesn’t work with my Vista.
I have looked for this driver all day without any luck.
Please Help. (give me the link)
Still using my trusty Natural Keyboard Pro. Ive checked over the years for any worthy successors but I never found anything. The Natural Ergomanic 4000 is also getting on a bit now, and I wonder when the next new design will come that we ‘ergomaniacs’ will be impressed with.
Still, this Natural Keyboard Pro is going strong, looks completely new tbh (roughly every year I pull out all the keys, soak and clean them thoroughly along with the rest of the keyboard shell) and cant fault it at all.
The problem has been fixed! The file hidserv.dll was missing in C:\Windows\System32 (don’t know why it was not there).
The volume keys started working after having this file downloaded and installed!
I have been looking for more than a month for this solution, and thanks to all the information on this site it has, finally, been clarified!
I am still struggling with my volume keys of my Microsoft Wireless Multimedia Keyboard: everything works fine except my volume up and down keys, they don’t react.
Funny thing is that the Mute function works fine. However, after pressing it again the VOLUME bar is shown, but no further action at all…
I have checked the value in the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidServ\Parameters)
and it appears to be OK. However, I CANNOT start the HID Input Service which should, by the way, start automatically!!!
It refers to the command: svchost.exe -k netsvcs, but it cannot be started anyway.
So I wonder what else I can do to get these volume keys working…
Btw, I am using XP Pro SP2.
I, too found the missing hidserv.dll file solution on another web page blog. But, I didn’t have to download that file, since it’s already on the computer in the Windows\System32\Drivers directory. Just copy it from that directory to the System32 directory, start the HID service from the Computer Management console and BINGO!, the volume buttons work.
Ok, so I’ve used a bit of the information here to get this keyboard working how I want, but I still have one lingering problem. I’ve programmed the 4 5 Favorites keys to work as next track and previous track. This works fine with iTunes when the program is not minimized to the system tray. However, as soon as I minimize iTunes to the system tray, they keys stop functioning.
I had this problem with my previous keyboard too, but there was a fix for that. You can use the mmKeys.dll to fix it (read more at: http://www.everythingitunes.com/os/windows/2008-01-04/mmkeysdll/) The problem is that this DLL does not seem to work with this keyboard.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so, has anyone found a way to get the previous track / next track to work with iTunes when it’s minimized to the system tray?
I’ve got 3 of them…all with same problem. If windows shut down abnormally, I get screen on reboot to choose safeboot, last good config, normal, etc with normal as default at ed of countdown. Choices are by up-down keys. Keyboard is totally unresponsive during this screen(must wait out countdown and go normal). F8 to enter safeboot from regular boot doesn’t work either. Delete to enter Bios works as do up-down-enter-escape within Bios. Other keyboards don’t have this problem on my systems. Anyone else with this problem? Any solutions? No response from Microsoft.
