hmm... my direcinput code is exactly the same as yours apart from a couple of things:
im checking if FAILED() on the return values - doesn''t seem to make a difference if i leave it out

my functions to check the keyboard state aren''t WINAPI - doesn''t make a difference when they are

im creating mine in nonexclusive mode - ofcourse, this doesn''t make a difference except if you''re trying to use normal windows functions to access the keyboard

and my variables have different names

so the only thing i can think of is to reinstall the directx sdk, and directx itself - you''re code seems to be fine

hmm.. unless you''re not passing a valid HWND or HINSTANCE to the function.. but you are aren''t you?

what was the problem?