USB Keyboard Problems
I recently purchased a Kensington Slim Type Keyboard, as it was among the simplest low profile 'scissor-key' keyboards I could find. The keyboard did not come with a USB - PS2 adapter, and it just uses the built in Windows drivers.
The problem is that at seemingly random intervals the Lock Keys (Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock) status lights will all flash on, then turn off, and when this happens, if I have a key depressed, the key will repeat for about a second. Then all the lights turn off, and the keyboard will function as normal. I then have to tap one of the 'Lock' keys to get the lights back on. The keyboard will continue to function as normal, however from time to time this will occur. To date, I have unable to determine a pattern, or a cause. Some days this doesn't happen at all, other days it can happen every few minutes at times. It appears almost as though the keyboard is 'resetting' itself though. My only other thought is that it may be some sort of buffer issue, but that is just guessing.
I contacted Kensington Support, and they sent me another keyboard, advising me to simply mark the old one as defective, and dispose of appropriately. As I wasn't sure if it was a hardware issue, I just kept the old keyboard just in case. As it turns out, the same problem occurs with the new keyboard. I can have both keyboards plugged in at the same time, and the problem will only occur with the keyboard I am using (however the problem doesn't always happen while I am actively typing).
Troubleshooting done:
- uninstall / reinstall drivers
- unplug all USB devices except for keyboard (using mouse via USB - PS2 adapter)
- try keyboard in each USB port, one at a time.
- update motherboard BIOS to latest version
- switch BIOS to BIOS level USB keyboard support, switch back to OS support
Additionally, I plugged in my MacAlly iceKey keyboard that I use on my PowerBook, and tried using it for a while with the auto-detected Windows drivers, and I experience no problems whatsoever with that keyboard.
The only thing I can think of that I haven't done yet is try the Kensington keyboard on my PowerBook, as the laptop's hard drive is dying (what you get for treating your laptop like a desktop) and I only have the one PC at home, so I can't try it on another PC.
Thus, I'm rather unsure of where the problem lies. I would be surprised to receive two bad keyboards in a row, and I haven't been able to find any trouble reports with this keyboard, so it doesn't appear to be a widespread issue.
I have not had any other USB related issues to date. In fact, apart from this, I have rarely had any issues with my current setup.
More Info:
OS: Windows XP Pro SP1
Motherboard: Abit AN7 Nforce2 board (with most recent BIOS as of January 25th)
I work in the tech support department for an ISP, and have asked around and so far no one has had any ideas as to what may be causing this problem, or even where to start to try to fix it.
Any suggestions would be appreciated,
Thanks,
Tim
I recently purchased a Kensington Slim Type Keyboard, as it was among the simplest low profile 'scissor-key' keyboards I could find. The keyboard did not come with a USB - PS2 adapter, and it just uses the built in Windows drivers.
The problem is that at seemingly random intervals the Lock Keys (Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock) status lights will all flash on, then turn off, and when this happens, if I have a key depressed, the key will repeat for about a second. Then all the lights turn off, and the keyboard will function as normal. I then have to tap one of the 'Lock' keys to get the lights back on. The keyboard will continue to function as normal, however from time to time this will occur. To date, I have unable to determine a pattern, or a cause. Some days this doesn't happen at all, other days it can happen every few minutes at times. It appears almost as though the keyboard is 'resetting' itself though. My only other thought is that it may be some sort of buffer issue, but that is just guessing.
I contacted Kensington Support, and they sent me another keyboard, advising me to simply mark the old one as defective, and dispose of appropriately. As I wasn't sure if it was a hardware issue, I just kept the old keyboard just in case. As it turns out, the same problem occurs with the new keyboard. I can have both keyboards plugged in at the same time, and the problem will only occur with the keyboard I am using (however the problem doesn't always happen while I am actively typing).
Troubleshooting done:
- uninstall / reinstall drivers
- unplug all USB devices except for keyboard (using mouse via USB - PS2 adapter)
- try keyboard in each USB port, one at a time.
- update motherboard BIOS to latest version
- switch BIOS to BIOS level USB keyboard support, switch back to OS support
Additionally, I plugged in my MacAlly iceKey keyboard that I use on my PowerBook, and tried using it for a while with the auto-detected Windows drivers, and I experience no problems whatsoever with that keyboard.
The only thing I can think of that I haven't done yet is try the Kensington keyboard on my PowerBook, as the laptop's hard drive is dying (what you get for treating your laptop like a desktop) and I only have the one PC at home, so I can't try it on another PC.
Thus, I'm rather unsure of where the problem lies. I would be surprised to receive two bad keyboards in a row, and I haven't been able to find any trouble reports with this keyboard, so it doesn't appear to be a widespread issue.
I have not had any other USB related issues to date. In fact, apart from this, I have rarely had any issues with my current setup.
More Info:
OS: Windows XP Pro SP1
Motherboard: Abit AN7 Nforce2 board (with most recent BIOS as of January 25th)
I work in the tech support department for an ISP, and have asked around and so far no one has had any ideas as to what may be causing this problem, or even where to start to try to fix it.
Any suggestions would be appreciated,
Thanks,
Tim
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