Must hit space bar 3x to get one space character. PLEASE HELP!

[MrNeutrino]

For the past few days with no new HW/SW installed on my ASUS P5B-VM, I've started having problems with the space bar on my keyboard.

Must hit the spacebar 3x to insert a single space (in WinXP).

I've played with the 2-3 keyboard settings in control pannel, with no luck.

With normal typing (hit spc. bar 1x), I get all text characters next to each other: alltextcharactersnexttoeachother

I've seen the same behavior with a PS2 as well as a USB keyboard.

Typing this way is VERY frustrating.

Keeping typing to a minimum. Meanwhile, please help if you have any ideas!

Thanks.

 

[Rike]

Just to clarify, you have exactly the same problem with the space bar:

A) With the same keyboard, whether it's plugged into PS2 or USB

or

B) With two different keyboards, one of which is PS2 and the other is USB

Feel free to answer simply "A" or "B" 😉

 

[Lemon law]

Having a single key board that I can plug into either USB or a PS2 port, I see exactly the question Rike asks and you are vague about. But its possible to remove the key caps of a space bar and see if you have some dirt or crud under it that prevents getting the key fully depressed. Clean out the dirt, and you may be good to go.---and in fact I was having the same problem with my comma key a few days ago. But its sure easier to remove a single keycap than a multiple one. And you may also discover your spacebar has a mental linkage on both sides.---and the keepers for the mental linkage may be jammed or physically busted on on or more sides. Or another way to test is put on num lock, hold down on the alt key, and then type 32 on the numerical key pad---and then release the alt key---you should see the cursor move one space.

 

[MrNeutrino]

Rike, B it is. 🙂

I just installed Ubuntu on a new logical partition on my HDD to see if the same PS2 KB's space bar (MS natrual KB) worked there.

As suspected, the same PS2 KB worked like a charm in Ubuntu! Haven't tried the same with the USB KB + ubuntu, but suspect it will work just as it did a month back when I hooked it up to another PC for a few hours.

It really seems to be a windows (setting?) issue regardless of the KB. Very strange!

Lemon law: Thanks for the ALT+32 trick. That works as you mention every time - 1x space each time... again pointing away from KB hardware issues to some software setting (esp. since Ubuntu + this PS2 MS natural KB works flawlessly).

Any ideas what strange setting I can change to bring my life back in order?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: MrNeutrino
Rike, B it is. 🙂

I just installed Ubuntu on a new logical partition on my HDD to see if the same PS2 KB's space bar (MS natrual KB) worked there.

As suspected, the same PS2 KB worked like a charm in Ubuntu! Haven't tried the same with the USB KB + ubuntu, but suspect it will work just as it did a month back when I hooked it up to another PC for a few hours.

It really seems to be a windows (setting?) issue regardless of the KB. Very strange!

Any ideas what strange setting I can change to bring my life back in order?

I know of one thing you can try, that might solve your problem, and one that definitely will. First, try deleting your keyboard driver in Device Manager, then rebooting. If that doesn't solve the problem, reloading Windows definitely will. Note: don't delete your C: partition, and don't reformat, just install Windows right "on top" of where it's installed now. Doing it that way, all of your drivers will still be installed, as will all of your software. You won't even need to reactivate Windows, although if you let Windows update itself (an utter waste, IMO), then it will have to do that.

Also, since I never keep anything at all in my "My Documents" folder, I'm not sure whether or not its' contents will be altered. Knowing Billy and his Seattle cohorts like I do, though, I'd back up anything that's in "Your Documents", because it very well may be empty once you reload Windows. Everything else will be just like it is right now, though, except your keyboard will function properly again.

 

[MrNeutrino]

Thanks myocardia, yeah, reinstalling windows was something i was trying to avoid.

May have to get down to that as a last resort (after couple of hours worth of optical disc based incremental backups).

I'll try the device mgr. option - maybe that will salvage the otherwise doomed Windoze install.

BTW, what do you mean by installing windows 'on top'? Put differently, I only know of two options available - reformat+install / reinstall on existing partition. The latter however, doesn't keep all the program settings intact, depending on the program, not to mention the entire start menu wiped out. Can you clarify what option you're referring to?

Meanwhile, I'll give this a try and post back the results.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: MrNeutrino
BTW, what do you mean by installing windows 'on top'? Put differently, I only know of two options available - reformat+install / reinstall on existing partition. The latter however, doesn't keep all the program settings intact, depending on the program, not to mention the entire start menu wiped out. Can you clarify what option you're referring to?

Meanwhile, I'll give this a try and post back the results.

I mean don't delete the C:\ partition and don't reformat the C:\ partition, but also, don't use the Repair option. Just pretend like you've never had Windows installed on that drive, and choose to install it to the C:\ partition. And which version of Windows are you using? Because with both XP Home, and XP Pro, I've never had to reinstall a single thing, nor have I ever had any of my programs changed in any way.

Sure, it resets the few things you can change in Windows back to their defaults, but that only takes 3-4 minutes to reconfigure. Both of my machines are gaming machines, and both have many other apps installed besides games, and I've never once had a setting changed, in any app, when reinstalling Windows, except of course for the few Windows settings themselves. Even the start menu will still show all of the software you've installed since the last time you formatted that partition, assuming you're running any of the versions of XP.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: MrNeutrino
BTW, what do you mean by installing windows 'on top'? Put differently, I only know of two options available - reformat+install / reinstall on existing partition. The latter however, doesn't keep all the program settings intact, depending on the program, not to mention the entire start menu wiped out. Can you clarify what option you're referring to?

Meanwhile, I'll give this a try and post back the results.

I mean don't delete the C:\ partition and don't reformat the C:\ partition, but also, don't use the Repair option. Just pretend like you've never had Windows installed on that drive, and choose to install it to the C:\ partition. And which version of Windows are you using? Because with both XP Home, and XP Pro, I've never had to reinstall a single thing, nor have I ever had any of my programs changed in any way.

Sure, it resets the few things you can change in Windows back to their defaults, but that only takes 3-4 minutes to reconfigure. Both of my machines are gaming machines, and both have many other apps installed besides games, and I've never once had a setting changed, in any app, when reinstalling Windows, except of course for the few Windows settings themselves. Even the start menu will still show all of the software you've installed since the last time you formatted that partition, assuming you're running any of the versions of XP.

I didn't even know you could do that. So the installer knows not to overwrite programs but to overwrite only the windows install? That's cool.

 

[uncleezno]

Ah, the ol' Windows reinstall. Used to be whenever I had a problem with '95, I would just reinstall it until the problem went away. Almost always worked. 😉

 

[MrNeutrino]

Was out of town for a few days so couldn't work on this earlier.

Well, a simple (re)install of XP as expected, fixed the problem. A bit of a pain but well worth it compared to trying to solve the otherwise very obscure problem.

Thanks for the tip, myocardia.