Keyboard not registering every keystroke

juanantoniod said:

What I find interesting is that, today I had to execute some commands at the command prompt. Just simple things, but I was amazed that I could even tell the responsiveness of the keystrokes was better there, even though it was just a small difference between that, and say, Office. I think it is interesting because every "layer" of application creates a small delay between the hardware and the OS. Most people probably would not even notice it, but I type around 97 words per minute, so I can.

Interesting observation.

The keyboard input buffer in Windows is only something like 64 characters and the combination of hooks set by applications such as your fingerprint device and layers of software do indeed slow things down remarkably.

Part of the problem is the way windows handles user commands. These are rolled into an internal messaging loop that runs through all running software on the system. When you type a letter "A" Windows has to figure out which is the foreground window, which control in the window is selected, etc. Once this is done it sends a "message" to that window to display the letter A in the appropriate control. The control itself then has to figure out what to do with the A -- store it, process it as a command, reject it, etc.-- and then draw it on the screen.

The thing to understand is that this "message" is little more than a subroutine call that *does not return* until your input is processed. Get several of these hooked into the keyboard and it does indeed slow the whole system down... noticeably.

So, add this slowness to a fast typist and you're asking for keyboard buffer overruns... Literally you're typing faster than it can process the input data and characters get dropped.

I used to have the problem on win95/386 computers all the time and there's really nothing you're going to do about it... except slowing down (and yes as a touch typist I realize how difficult that is).

Since I have exactly the same problem, I am following the suggestions with interest. I am, however, a very slow 2 finger typist and in my case the typing speed should not be an issue. And it happens only in reply boxes of forums (with IE8 - never tried another browser). No problem in Word or Wordpad or any other program.

My keyboard is wireless and I have 2 theories:

1. something interferes with the keyboard signal
2. some process interferes

Since the problem is only sporadic, I have not given it too much attention yet. But it sure is annoying when it occurs. Interesting point: the problem does not only happen here on this HP system but also in Germany (6000 miles away) when I am on my Dell system - same keyboard though but different operating systems.

whs said:

My keyboard is wireless and I have 2 theories:

Three questions...

1) How far are you from the receiver for your keyboard?
Some only have a working range of a couple of feet.

2) Are you using a wireless router?
How far is the keyboard receiver from the router antenna?

3) Are there any really big antennas in your neighborhood?
CBers and Ham radio operators have been known to interfere with computers (and visa versa)... especially wireless devices.

1. Two feet
2. No - I have a hard wired Netgear switch.
3. Not to my knowledge. But there can always be something hidden in the houses. Houses are medium dense - about 2 or 3 per acre.

whs said:

1. Two feet
2. No - I have a hard wired Netgear switch.
3. Not to my knowledge. But there can always be something hidden in the houses. Houses are medium dense - about 2 or 3 per acre.

Hmmm... ok...

1) have you tested the range... i.e. backing away from the computer until it shuts down? It's probably no big deal, but it might help you to know.

2) ok

3) Could well be. A 100 watt transmitter (and some CBers use thousands) can mess you up from a couple of city blocks away...

4) Hmmmmmmmm....

CommonTater said:

juanantoniod said:

What I find interesting is that, today I had to execute some commands at the command prompt. Just simple things, but I was amazed that I could even tell the responsiveness of the keystrokes was better there, even though it was just a small difference between that, and say, Office. I think it is interesting because every "layer" of application creates a small delay between the hardware and the OS. Most people probably would not even notice it, but I type around 97 words per minute, so I can.

Interesting observation.

The keyboard input buffer in Windows is only something like 64 characters and the combination of hooks set by applications such as your fingerprint device and layers of software do indeed slow things down remarkably.

Part of the problem is the way windows handles user commands. These are rolled into an internal messaging loop that runs through all running software on the system. When you type a letter "A" Windows has to figure out which is the foreground window, which control in the window is selected, etc. Once this is done it sends a "message" to that window to display the letter A in the appropriate control. The control itself then has to figure out what to do with the A -- store it, process it as a command, reject it, etc.-- and then draw it on the screen.

The thing to understand is that this "message" is little more than a subroutine call that *does not return* until your input is processed. Get several of these hooked into the keyboard and it does indeed slow the whole system down... noticeably.

So, add this slowness to a fast typist and you're asking for keyboard buffer overruns... Literally you're typing faster than it can process the input data and characters get dropped.

I used to have the problem on win95/386 computers all the time and there's really nothing you're going to do about it... except slowing down (and yes as a touch typist I realize how difficult that is).

CommonTater,

Thanks for the confirmation about my dilemma. If I could only figure out which program was the "last straw", then I could simply get rid of it. I know the fingerprint reader could be causing it with its "hooks", but I have turned off all of the Website "catches" it does, so maybe that will help the problem. The weird thing is (and I know weird things are no staranger to computers) that I have had the same (as far as I can tell) installation and, until a few weeks ago, was not having this problem. But you are correct, as I type now, I can see that by slowing down on my typing, the problem is less apparent.

Maybe I will go through my system processes in the Task Manager and see if there is anything I recognize that is not needed, and maybe that will help.

I appreciate your help!

~Antonio

juanantoniod said:

Thanks for the confirmation about my dilemma. If I could only figure out which program was the "last straw", then I could simply get rid of it. I know the fingerprint reader could be causing it with its "hooks", but I have turned off all of the Website "catches" it does, so maybe that will help the problem. The weird thing is (and I know weird things are no staranger to computers) that I have had the same (as far as I can tell) installation and, until a few weeks ago, was not having this problem. But you are correct, as I type now, I can see that by slowing down on my typing, the problem is less apparent.

Maybe I will go through my system processes in the Task Manager and see if there is anything I recognize that is not needed, and maybe that will help.

I appreciate your help!

~Antonio

Hey the "which program" question is simple... disable them all and see what happens then add them back in one at a time (i.e. take one out and put the next one in) and see which one causes the lag... It could be something as simple as a minor incompatibility with Win7's more secure hooking procedures... or it could be, as you say, "the last straw". Not all programs hook the keyboard like a fingerprint, smart card or barcode device does, so there's no reason to blame Notepad (for example).

Good luck with this... I'm also a fairly quick typist and on occasion I can get 3 or 4 characters ahead of Win7 (never happened in XP)... but I'm not fast enough to overrun the keyboard buffer.... Although I once saw an estimate that the old 386/win95 machines topped out at about 60 words a minute...

Yes, I am taking your advice, and starting with my browser first. I am installing Chrome as we speak, since I know it has a small footprint. We will see how Webforms complete with that...

juanantoniod said:

Yes, I am taking your advice, and starting with my browser first. I am installing Chrome as we speak, since I know it has a small footprint. We will see how Webforms complete with that...

Good luck... A methodical approach usually is best... I hope you find it.