Keyboard not registering every keystroke

[geoffparkin]

I have an Acer Aspire 5732Z running under Windows 7 Home Premium and the keyboard seems to have a mind of it's own. When I am typing, particularly into input boxes like this one letter randomly fail to register, very frustrating, mostly vowels.
If it were the same keys every time then I could be sure it is a harware fault, but this is not the case, even the space bar fails on occasion.

Can anybody help?

 

[richc46]

Just a guess, go to keyboard in Control and adjust the settings, for delay, put it near fast. Mine is about 3/4 of the way.

 

[juanantoniod]

Just a guess, go to keyboard in Control and adjust the settings, for delay, put it near fast. Mine is about 3/4 of the way.

Hi Richard,

I am having the same problems with my keyboard as the original poster: Input, mostly on Web forms, seems to "lose" keystrokes, possibly because I type too fast for it to catch everything. I found your solution because I was searching for my own post, and happened upon yours.

However, I do not understand your directions completely. My keyboard properties have a Repeat delay, but it is not fast or slow, it is long and short. Long is on the left, and Short is on the right, and the slider is about 2/3 toward Short. Which way should I move it, if at all? I also have Repeat rate, if that has anything to do with the problem. Mine has settings between slow and fast, and mine is all the way to the right, on the Fastest setting.

I would be very grateful for any advice you can give me, and will happily "rep" you for your assistance, if you would be so kind as to tell me how to do that.

Thanks in advance and best wishes,

~Antonio

 

[richc46]

Welcome Antonio,

My keyboard is just like yours, I mispoke. The settings is about 2/3 ot 3/4 toward short. I am sure we are set the same as that is the default setting. I doubt if the sollution worked, we never heard from th poster, again.

Not having the problem, myself, and not knowing anyone who has, I feel that the problem has something to do with the amount of force required to type with each letter.

My repeat rate is all the way to the right, too.

 

[juanantoniod]

Welcome Antonio,

My keyboard is just like yours, I mispoke. The settings is about 2/3 ot 3/4 toward short. I am sure we are set the same as that is the default setting. I doubt if the sollution worked, we never heard from th poster, again.

Not having the problem, myself, and not knowing anyone who has, I feel that the problem has something to do with the amount of force required to type with each letter.

My repeat rate is all the way to the right, too.

Hi Richard,

I do not think it has anything to do with the keyboard pressure, because my keyboard is also buffering to the screen at times, but only on Webpages. I have a program installed, called Protector Suite QL, from UPEK, which is a fingerprint reader. They intercept your Web registration/sign in inputs and offer to save the information under your fingerprint security. I have a feeling that their software might be the cause, because it runs in the background and senses when Web forms are being completed, especially logins.

I have emailed UPEK support, and they have been very good about getting back to me in the past. Maybe/hopefully, they will have a solution. I hope so, because this is driving me nuts!

Have a good night,

~Antonio

 

[richc46]

Why not make a system restore point and remove the software. See how the keyboard works. It can be reinstalled very easily using SR, again. If nothing else you will be sure of the cause. I, also, try to install very little on my computer. If you really need or like it keep it. I know that everyone has different cirucmstances and needs, but the last thing that I would want is a fingerprint reader.

If you had mentioned the fingerprint reader in your first post that would have been my first guess.

If it were my compuer and I called for help on the finger print reader, I would suspect that as a cause regardless of the answer that I received.

Ty for the rep, I truly feel that it is not earned. But, I will keep the problem in mind and repost if anything new is thought of. You keep us posted, possibly we can still solve this together.

 

[geoffparkin]

Web page entry

I have read all of the replies to my original question with interest, none of the solutions offered have worked, I am sure the problem lies within IE8, there may be a clash with another application. I may well be that we have to wait for a windows update to solve the problem.

 

[richc46]

I have read all of the replies to my original question with interest, none of the solutions offered have worked, I am sure the problem lies within IE8, there may be a clash with another application. I may well be that we have to wait for a windows update to solve the problem.

If you think that the problem is with IE. Go to tools>internet options>advanced>reset. It will remove all the add-ons which you can restore later.

 

[juanantoniod]

Resetting IE8 -- is there a way to save settings?

I have read all of the replies to my original question with interest, none of the solutions offered have worked, I am sure the problem lies within IE8, there may be a clash with another application. I may well be that we have to wait for a windows update to solve the problem.

If you think that the problem is with IE. Go to tools>internet options>advanced>reset. It will remove all the add-ons which you can restore later.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the suggestion about resetting IE8. I am happy to do this, but I would like a way short of doing complete system backup and restore, of saving the settings before I wipe them all out. Does IE8 have a way of saving all of my personal settings, so I do not have to recreate them from "scratch"?

Best,

~Antonio

 

[juanantoniod]

Hello Richard and Geoff,

If only I could narrow down the time this actually started, then I could be more certain of the possible cause. However, in the absence of that, I am not going to do anything major at this point, because I have had this configuration for a while, and not had the problem for more than a few weeks. I think I said this in an earlier post, but over the weekend, I actually did do a system restore from a disc partition image I had created on March 14, and the problem was there before that date too. I guess, if I look at this from my 32 years of computer experience, it could be caused by anything. So many things that, in the absence of "hard" evidence, I do not want to go stabbing my way through my applications and settings just trying to find the cause. I feel that such an effort would be futile.

For what it's worth, I use the fingerprint reader to remember usernames and passwords for Web registrations, and for my Windows login. For the latter, it is just an alternative to typing a long password every time I boot my computer, and for the former, it is so that I do not have to maintain a list of usernames and passwords, as I would normally, because I have a cognitive disorder which makes it hard to remember these things.

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.

I think I have just happened to stumble across the wrong combination of "application layers", and they have somehow interacted to create this delay. Windows, as it usually does, will probably one day just change some setting that changes this interaction and gets rid of the problem. Until that happens, I will continue to "troubleshoot as I go", and keep the forum (you guys) posted if I happen upon something that I do which fixes this.

My only request to you both is that you keep me "in your loop" if a solution to the problem comes along.

Thanks and have a good night!

~Antonio

 

[CommonTater]

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).

 

[richc46]

I have read all of the replies to my original question with interest, none of the solutions offered have worked, I am sure the problem lies within IE8, there may be a clash with another application. I may well be that we have to wait for a windows update to solve the problem.

If you think that the problem is with IE. Go to tools>internet options>advanced>reset. It will remove all the add-ons which you can restore later.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the suggestion about resetting IE8. I am happy to do this, but I would like a way short of doing complete system backup and restore, of saving the settings before I wipe them all out. Does IE8 have a way of saving all of my personal settings, so I do not have to recreate them from "scratch"?

Best,

~Antonio

This is the MS suggested way of installing a new OS and saving all your settings. I would use Windows Easy Transfer. As a warning things can go wrong. Back up your important documents and pics on a sep hard drive, DVD or flash drive for safety.
Windows 7 features - Windows Easy Transfer - Microsoft Windows

 

[whs]

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.

 

[CommonTater]

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.

 

[whs]

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.

 

[CommonTater]

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....

 

[juanantoniod]

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

 

[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

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...

 

[juanantoniod]

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...

 

[CommonTater]

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.