PLEASE can anyone help?

[Harold Hunt]

Sylvan,

One more thing: do you have any programs running that might use Direct Input
to acquire the keyboard?  Try shutting down all non-system applications,
then try to launch Cygwin/XFree86.  I would shut down any applications in
the tray, and I would remove all applications from Start->Programs->Startup,
and if you really want to be sure, go in and verify that neither the
registry nor the system configuration files (win.ini, system.ini) are
loading any applications at login.

You might first want to try installing a normal keyboard (not just a normal
driver), just to see if that works or not.

Harold