Keyboard problem (Extensa 5620)

Hello,

I have a strange problem with my keyboard on my Extensa 5620 laptop. Basically, it responds poorly to combinations of three or more keys at a time. For example, when I edit a document and use ctrl-shift-arrow key to select blocks of text, it only works on the first press of the arrow. If I hold the ctrl and shift keys, and press the arrow key multiple times, only one word ends up being selected (sometimes, after pressing it about 20 times, maybe 3 or become selected). Similarly, when I press ctrl-shift-esc for the task manager, or ctrl-shift-f5 for build or whatever, it sometimes takes several presses to work. When I only press ctrl-arrow or shift-arrow, however, it works perfectly.

Also, when I play sidescroller games like Cave Story, and I hold several keys down and try to press another one, it doesn't register. This is rather annoying.

Is this a common problem? I'm not sure what to do about it. I haven't checked whether the problem also exhibits itself on XP; so far I noticed it only on Vista. (By the way, my thanks go to the people of this forum who helped me with my XP installation problems earlier.)

Both my XP and Vista installs have annoyances - for Vista it's the keyboard problem (though as I said, it might also manifest itself on XP) and XP doesn't want to connect to unnamed wireless networks. Oh well.

Thank you!

 

Interesting. I just tried this on my Extensa 5620G, and similar 'problem', if we want to call it that.

Holding down SHIFT+CTRL and then using arrows to highlight blocks of text in a Word Doc for example, I will on the first combo press get the first paragraph, but then tapping the arrow key in repeated succession doesn't give me next block, next block etc, unlike my desktop PC which does do so.

However, if I press and hold SHIFT+CTRL, then press and hold the down arrow key for a half-second or so, I will highlight numerous blocks on the fly, and continue to do so until I release the keys.

I tried turning off the 'Sticky Keys' shortcut (SHIFT) - and this made no difference.

Another difference I noticed between my desktop and Extensa, is that if I hold down 5 keys on my desktop keyboard whilst in a Word Doc (for example), the keys will start repeating, but then the desktop will choke and the PC speaker will emit a 'beep' of displeasure - but not so on the Extensa - pressing 5 keys will just keep displaying characters without choking.

So perhaps the keyboard driver of the Extensa is different? Dunno - just guessing. But I see what you mean about it becoming annoying if you need this feature a bit - I play the occasional game so I will have to try this on the Extensa to see whether it is a 'global' quirk.

Cheers.

ADD: My Extensa is XP Pro, just FYI.

 

Did some further poking around:

http://www.vnunet.com/personal-computer-world/hardware/2204988/review-acer-aspire-7720g

And this:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-bugs/2006-October/022684.html

Sounds like an Acer problem. That said, I don't see it as a problem affecting many people, and, were I to game on this laptop, I would use an external kerboard as I tend use my keyboard as 'passionately' as I play the game (!!), so I wouldn't want to subject the laptop keyboard to that!

But yes - hmmm, wonder what other 'quirks' Acers have??

Further ADD: Just a comment from another thread here at NBR:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=135440

 

Hey,

Thanks for the replies. I don't play games that much any more, but it's somewhat annoying when I'm typing. My previous laptop (Aspire 1690) didn't have that problem...

 

I believe there was a few of this same type of complaint over in an Acer 'Hot Deal' discussion on the fatwallet forums as well. Certainly seems like an Acer problem, although I don't know how much effort they'll put into fixing it with the small number of complaints they'd likely receive.

I have noticed it as well, and it annoys me a bit. Having said that, I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed that it does it, or just that I know about it.