Beta BIOS - Possible Missing Keystroke Fix

Well, if you updated your bios once... then you should already know how to do it again.

just go to Asus drivers page and get the latest non beta Bios

 

Yup, but don't force the update. If it isn't recognized, don't flash anyways.

 

can someone do me a test?

My mouse seems to go crazy if i move it to the top right corner of the screen.

Just want to see if anyone else has it. it's about within the last square cm of the top right

Thanks

 

I prefer to use my mouse on a flat horizontal surface, but when I move it to the top right corner of the screen it does nothing.

Or maybe you meant the cursor? (no cursor problems at corners here...)

Are you using the trackpad or an external mouse or other pointing device?

Any gadget or hidden application window in the upper right corner?

 

nothing.

I have a professional mouse pad and a 5400DPI mouse i use here, but if i move the cursor to the top right it seems to flicker and jump about in that 1 square CM.

I can move it out with the touchpad, but the external mouse spazzes out crazily. it happens if i move it with the touchpad or the mouse.

Dunno why.

I think i'm just gonna reinstall this PoS. Compared with my 8740w there is no comparison lol. the touchpad on that machine is an angel compared to this.

No gadgets or icons or anything.

it just locks up the usb mouse if it goes up there. same in games too

 

Well, for starters, what mouse is it? Also, what settings for this mouse are you using?

 

I downloaded the 211 bios, but the flash utility wont let me flash to an older bios, it warns me that the bios files is older than the current version and asks me to exit. Is their a way around this? I flashed my vbios using a USB boot disk, is there a similar procedure to flash to an older bios?

 

Use the EZFlash utility in the BIOS and install 211 from a USB Drive formatted for FAT32/FAT

 

its a razer mamba, set to 1000Hz, 5400DPI, sorry 5600 lol i was not reading the back properly when i looked at it.

Newest driver.

this has only begun to happen in the last few days, since i did the 'fix'

Sio

 

Did the the beta bios permanently fix the touchpad or keyboard for anyone?

My touchpad is pretty much back to the way it was, it might even be worse, now it will stop working completely at times. I think this whole exercise has proven that it is a software issue though. I am really disappointed in this laptop, I have tried everything I can think of, and everything everyone has thought of, and the touchpad is no better. We need a fix from Asus, what is the hold up?

If I RMA it would they be able to do anything? I have tried what Gary indicated worked for their repair facilities, it seemed to work initially and then failed. Would the repair facility just do the same thing and send it back to me? I think Asus should send out new laptops to those of us who have this problem. Charge us for the new one and reverse the charge when they get the malfunctioning one delivered back to them. They need to do something...

 

I held off on actually flashing the BIOS in hopes that all the other steps would correct the problem with my keyboard - I don't know if I have any issues with the touchpad since I turned it off to alleviate my keyboard problems.

While I did notice a lot of improvement, the problem wasn't completely corrected so I went ahead with the BIOS flash.

So far so good. I notice a distinct improvement in the keyboard. I supposed I should use the trackpad for a while and see if there are issues with it.

As someone who had to do the VBIOS flash in order to be able to update my video drives AND also had the crackling sound issue on top of the keyboard problems, I'm glad to say I think *fingers crossed* that all my issues have finally been resolved.

I was beginning to think I had spent all this money for this machine only to end up with nothing but a pile of problems that would never be resolved. Kudos to ASUS for coming through.

That said, I'm pretty sure I will never again spend this much money on a laptop again.

 

Although I'm satisfied with my laptop, I would have returned it for a refund (and bought a different brand) if the problem had happened within my return window. As happy as I am, having to deal with a bunch of annoying problems on a $1800 laptop leaves a sour taste that'll never go away so long as I use it. That's right, it's a strong, negative association between asus and suck. They've started fixing the problems, but simply getting me a working laptop isn't "fixing" my feelings about their brand, even if it is fixing my current problem. For example, if my GPU dies outside of warranty and they fix it anyways? That would make me feel a lot better. Or sending it in for some small problem and getting it back, upgraded? Again... asus may have fixed my problem, but it took me 2+ months of shipping costs and wait time to get the thing I paid for in the first place.

I'll probably still buy asus in the future, but not on a high end laptop.

As for the touchpad ... well, I use a mouse so I couldn't tell you if it's fixed. As for the keyboard dropping keys ... I *do* think it worked, but the touchpad is so big that I'm sure I'm brushing it with my palm - which makes me drop keys while typing - but I havn't noticed any glaring missed keys. So kudos for that, Gary!

 

Last night I helped a fellow in #asus-rog who flashed to the beta bios and still had keyboard / trackpad issues. What worked is uninstalling both the keyboard buffer driver and the Synaptic touchpad drivers, rebooting, and then installing them back. (we used 15.1.0.9 and 1.03 respectively)

He now has a stable system.

 

Well hopefully the guys machine is fixed, I thought mine was as well. It was good for almost 2 days and then it reverted back to its old ways.

I will try your suggestion though, remove, reboot and then reinstall.

 

I think the issue is that after the BIOS update, the hardware needs to be redetected afresh in the OS.

 

I been running for the last couple of days. I can type on most of the other keys without too much issue. It is the stupid spacebar that is giving me the most problems.

 

A few days ago I sold my M11x R2 and have a serious buyer for my M17x R2. I've been contemplating selling my G73JH also, but because of it's well know out of the box issues the offers that I receive are based on potential buyers Google searches that result in a ton of negative info from various forums plaguing the G73JH's resale value.

When the new M17x R3 with Sandybridge is released I'm soooo jumping ship and not looking back.
I appreciate Gary & Co's attempt at fixing this problem but I feel that with all the problems out of the box with the G73JH, Asus owes it to "US" to do more in a timely manner. It is so annoying reading about the new G73JW/3D, G53 etc.... and they haven't even fixed the G73JH!!

What's so lame to me is that other forum users here are like be patient blah blah blah. I've owned this G73JH for over 8 months with out of the box problems. How's that for patience?
What I can't understand is through reading Gary's post he's obviously a busy guy flying here and flying there. Why has this task fallen upon him?
Shouldn't Asus's entire R&D deptartment be handling this?

Does Asus(not including Gary) pretend to believe these problems do not exist?
I don't know about China/Taiwan but in the States word of mouth goes a long way. In my neck of the woods many people look to me as the go to guy when it comes to PC purchases.

I have lost count of how many people I have detoured from buying Asus products based on my personal experience with Asus Hardware/Asus RMA/Asus Customer Service.
In the meantime I'd still like a fully functional touchpad.


I think Asus should offer G73JH owners a buy back or upgrade offer as a Goodwill measure because at this point it's the right thing to do.


Thanks for reading.

 

Once again I am going to try and fix this thing. Can someone tell me how to uninstall the keyboard buffer driver. I have the driver, but to do it as advised I need to remove it first, reboot and then put it back. I can't see it listed in the program list. I even installed it without removing it so I could see which one it is by date, but that did not work either.

Edit: I found the keyboard device filter. It is in System > Keyboard. I removed the device and driver in there and then reinstalled.

 

Ive tried reisntalling the recommended, newest, older.... pretty much any synaptics, keyboard filter, ATK, ATI & Realtek driver i have. It still doesnt work, this Bios is NOT a solution. After some reinstalls things worked for a while, but not for long.
Sorry Gary, but how can it be so hard to solve this if youre really cooperating with Synaptics, Intel and ATI? Somehow every other brand has a working touchpad and keyboard...
And i cant begin to understand how this problem can still exist after YEARS on your laptops...
Thank god they make decent porable mice nowadays so i can actually use my laptop.
Yes i know its a BETA, but that still doesnt comfort me one bit.

 

Gary, is there anything we can do as customers to get Asus more envolved with finding a solution?
Is there some kind of procedure that we can start to bring a sense of urgentcy to the issues at hand?

In the past I've owned the G51, G71, G72 & G73. Most of these units had problems straight out of the box. Some of the problems were hardware and some were software. Some problems were fixed and some were not. Some problems go from one model to the next model.

Asus has a history of designing new models and moving on instead of fixing current tech.
I feel that Asus's time with the G73JH is or about to be at an end as Asus focuses on newer hardware and upcoming Sandybridge models.

I think as "Enthusiasts" purchasing "Enthusiasts" laptops, Asus needs to pay more attention to "US" by taking this matter more seriously.
What's so annoying is when I read the forums online about specific G73JH problems that EVERYBODY knows about....the foreign customer service agents at Asus don't even have a clue, so why would I trust Asus with my laptop? The last time I RMA'd to Asus for defective GPU all they did was re-install OS without product key. Upon return, after 3 days the GPU died and reseller replaced Asus RMA'd laptop.

Is it possible for you to elevate our comments and concerns to someone who cares about customer relations/satisfaction?

Even now my trackpad is going crazy while I attempt to submit this message.
How frustrating

I know that you read ALL of the messages here.
Who creates a thread and doesn't read the posts/replies?
I appreciate all that you have done and possibly will do.
If replying here isn't reasonable because of company policy please point me in the right direction through PM or the email address I provided in my synaptics log email.
Thanks again.

 

HellCry I think your right about the uninstall and reinstall, it does not work.

I think we should try and push Asus to come up with a solution that works, which hopefully this thread is doing. In the mean time though it would be helpful for those with the problem to post anything they think might cause it, or any work arounds they have come up with.

One thing I have noticed lately is I can trigger a failure, some of the time, with my touchpad by holding the left button down to drag a window across the screen. I do have the double tap enabled to drag a window with one finger but if it needs to be dragged further than the touchpad allows I use the left button. When I do this the touchpad will go flakey for a while. So my work around for this (big surprise) will be to not to use the left touchpad button.

 

Well, after several days for working fine, my keyboard is missing strokes again. I was trying to type a proposal for work and the keyboard started missing keystrokes again, which is frustrating. My touchpad has been and is still working fine, it's just the keyboard that is acting up again. In fact, to type this, I've had to disable to touchpad, which I had gotten used to before this beta bios. This is extremely frustrating, since I was hoping this beta bios would fix the problem. So for me at least, this bios has not fixed the missing keystroke issue. It's almost like the keyboard is not sensitive enough, especially when the spacebar is involved. It would be nice if there was some sort of keyboard setting that one could adjust the sensitivity of the touch or keys. In any case, I'm going to send the diag files to the email address at the start of this thread and see what happens. Oh well... Guess it's back to the W500 for work stuff. Now, that's a keyboard and touchpad combo that Asus could learn from...

 

I'll have to agree with DCx and skygunner27 here. I anticipated problems with this model but I assumed they had all been worked out with fixes available in the various forums. But it seems there's no end to it. So, I'm also going to be looking at the Alienware M17x R3 when it comes out and may take this G73JH back to the store soon. As a regular customer there, I can get a full refund.

I think I'm done with Asus after this experience. Too bad. They used to be great. They can't expect to keep loyal customers when they release models that haven't been thoroughly tested and then lag on after-market support.

 

I think it's on purpose. We the users are their beta testers for their products and trainers for their customer service department. It's a lose/lose situation since people like us will bail from their products after all the bad experiences and they lose future revenue. Untested products and spotty customer service doesn't cut it when there are so many other brands and products to choose from. The Toshiba X505 looks really tempting at the moment...

 

Got an unexpected reboot - " : The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested. The BIOS might be trying to access the EC without synchronizing with the operating system. This data will be ignored. No further action is necessary; however, you should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. "

 

I had the same problem yesterday!!! I ran CCleaner and Auslogics and haven't ran into this problem since.
I think later on today when I get off work I will look into reverting back to 211 BIOS until a proper BIOS fix can be released.

Hopefully a fix can be released before CES in January(for resale purposes).

 

I suspect they have updated the EC firmware with this BIOS (since the keyboard controller is the issue) -- maybe you've hit a bug. That error doesn't necessarily end in a poweroff on all systems.

If anyone else gets the The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested error in your system log, make sure to post about it. That's not an error you want to see on a production BIOS in any event, even if it doesn't end in a lockup or shutdown.

 

I'm sending gary an email to let him know that it happened - perhaps you should too, skygunner?

 

I will when I get off work later

 

Is anyone experiencing the touchpad or keystroke problem on a fresh Windows install? I doubt if it makes any difference but I would do it if it was a certain fix.

I am wondering if it could be fixed by changing the order of the install of the drivers.

 

Yes, I did a fresh Windows install and I still have the keystroke problem.

 

I thought it would be interesting to see how the touchpad behaved in Express Gate, it was horrible, even worse than in Windows, it was unusable. Also, like the last time I went into Express Gate my machined locked up when I booted back into Windows, it took three tries to get a successful boot.

So does that tell us anything... the touchpad has consistent flaky behavior in both operating systems.

 

Actually, my keyboard has been more or less good with the update. I did a bios update, then a full reinstall. I'm still not HAPPY with it, but it's much, MUCH more usable. And I'm coming to believe that my missed keystrokes are my fat hands hitting the touchpad momentarily. And the random shutdown/restart is a bit of a drag.

 

Just to drudge up an old recommendation:

1) Open up Device Manager and go to Keyboards. You should see 2 objects here:

HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard Device Filter

2) Select HID Keyboard, and choose to Upgrade Drivers. Go to manual, and choose from a list. A new option should come up for "HID-Compliant Device" Select this, and when done, the item should disappear from your Device listing.

 

Looks like it switches the keyboard to usb mode? Or something?

 

I just did it, it did not help my touchpad at all.

 

Weird just for kicks went to my device manager and I dont have HID Keyboard Device. I have yet to install beta bios because I dont have keyboard problems and I also use a usb mouse.

 

That just means you havent installed the keyboard filter driver. It makes no difference if its installed or not, so dont worry about that.

 

Hey Chastity, I've been testing the keyboard since you helped me with uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers with the new bios... that night the system was running flawlessly, unfortunately, the problems have returned. I'm pretty disappointed. It also seems like the keyboard issues are even worse while in game. I think this is definitely a software issue as the lag seems to become worse as the system is under load.

 

I just had a weird experience with my touchpad - it stopped responding! Then, when it started again, no matter WHERE I moved, it would only go left and right (even when I was going up and down).

First time it's happened, ever.

Edit: It just did it again after entering this message.

Edit: AGAIN. I type, tab twice and hit space bar to enter the message, and the touchpad stops responding.

Edit: Nope, I just start typing a few letters and it stops.

Edit: Okay, now it works if I push REALLY HARD. Maybe it's a skin temperature thing? I did just get out of the sauna, and my body temp is up around 101.

Edit: Nope, not even pushing it hard fixes it completely. It's like it has to recognize my touch again...

Edit: Now that I've cooled down a bit, it doesn't happen any more. NOT sure what's the deal with that.

 

Lame...sounds EXACTLY like my trackpad

I've noticed that if my hands are warm from gaming or whatever my trackpad is more prone to rebel.

 

Welcome to my life!

 

Well, I found the thread that mentions disabling the track pad in the BIOs as a surefire way to stop the keyboard lag. This seems to be working really well for me now, especially since I use a mouse with this computer anyway. =\

 

Update - Based on the Feedback Provided (thank you) we will have a new BIOS late today or tomorrow to try. Also, we are looking at an update to the ATK driver.

 

Hehe thanks for this ! New bios for Christmas !

 

Yesterday I changed my keyboard to an 'HDI Compliant Device' and reinstalled the keyboard buffer driver and my touchpad has worked fine ever since. It has only been about 24 hours though and I have gone that long before and had it switch back to its old flakey ways. It might be something to try though if you have a bad touchpad.

The second mine goes flakey again I will reflash to the latest new beta bios.

It went flakey again, where is that new bios...

 

Even though you don't respond to me here in the forums I'll live...because actions speak louder than words.
Asus should be proud to have you as an employee.
Thank you Gary.

On a side note...
Can some one here tell me how to enable Number Lock in the bios? I some how lost this functionality through bios updates and can't seem to find where to enable it.

It's kinda annoying when I try to type in my password at the bootscreen and Num Lock isn't activated until after I log in.

 

I don't that option anywhere in the BIOS.

 

I'm pretty sure it was in a previous bios. It only bothers me now because my password has numbers in it...lol

 

For anyone who still hasnt flashed to the beta vBios posted in the OP, DONT DO IT. It started to give me occasional system locks (freezes).
I had to reflash to the 211 to solve the problem, so just save yourself the trouble.