No Keyboard! - Can't Get Past Screensaver!
 

Hi, I have had the Marine Aquarium for many, many years, and just love it.

But I have a problem right now. My HP Bluetooth wireless keyboard abruptly stopped working tonight. I put some new batteries in. Nothing. Tried pressing the Blue Connect button. Nothing. Tried moving the receiver to a different USB port. Nothing. (By the way, mouse was still working fine.)

I found some instructions for the Virtual Keyboard, found under Accessories, and got that working. Went to fix something to eat, and when I came back the screen saver had come on. I suddenly realized: Crap! I can't get past this screensaver, as I have no escape key!! I read somewhere on this site that the right mouse key was also supposed to work to exit the program. Except that it didn't work!

Some of the instructions for investigating the keyboard issue said to try rebooting, but if my login password won't work, how would I get into the computer?

The one thing that might work (not sure): After a certain number of hours, the computer goes into a deep sleep and the screen goes black. I THINK (but not sure) that upon waking it up, the screen saver might be gone. Then I could change the settings through the Control Panel, or just deactivate it.

I'm on Windows 7 64-bit.

Sorry for your troubles. I have no clue to the cause, especially why the right mouse button wouldn't bring up the mini-menu which includes an EXIT button.

Thank you for your reply. I don't know either why no menu, but the version I have must be nearing 17 years old, has outlasted maybe four computers, so maybe the right-click didn't come until later?

Just in case anyone else ends up in this "No Escape Key" situation, the right mouse button solution doesn't work, and you can't even get to the shutdown, here's what I did:

To shut down your computer without being able to get past Marine Aquarium screensaver---do NOT just switch it off, as you'll cause your hard disk to crash (if you have one)---hold down the power button for at least 10 seconds, until it powers down. (At least, this was the instruction for an HP desktop computer.) Restart by pressing the power button again, then wait for Windows to finish loading.

My computer (Windows 7) had a password on the account, and I was wondering how to get past that with no keyboard. Turns out there's an "Ease of Access" button down to the left of the User login buttons. Click that, and you get a menu of options with checkboxes, one of which is to use the on-screen keyboard. Click the checkbox to open the keyboard, then log in as normal.

When you get into your account, make sure the first thing you do is to go into Control Panel › Appearance and Personalization › Personalization › Change Screen Saver › Settings. Click the checkbox for Exit on Mouse Move option so that you don't get locked out again!

The reason I didn't have it checkmarked was that vibrations of people walking past the computer would often cause the super-sensitive mouse to move, and cause an exit from the screensaver.

If this helps just one person, it will be worth the effort.