G50v-A1 keyboard problem, please test.

I posted before about the keyboard issue with my G50v, and heres a bit of an update, plus a request.

My problem is, when i hold S + D down, and hit spacebar, (doing anything, gaming or not, and its not sticky keys) spacebar will do nothing. This isn't the only key combination that has the problem, but its one i use regularly. Now, holding W+A or W+D, or A+S works fine, so its only certain key combinations.
I called Asus tech support about this, and they sent me a new keyboard. Now it fixed certain keyboard problems i also had, it did not fix this one. I called Asus tech support again, and they requested i update my bios, which already was updated(to 204). So now they're requesting that i send the laptop to them for repair, and i believe that means i have to pay to ship it to them.
The only other option i have is to maybe ask newegg for a new one and return this, no clue if they'd do it...

Now, before i go through either of these, i'd really appreciate it if someone could attempt to replicate my issue, to make sure its my specific laptop thats screwed, because i wouldn't want another if this is normal on this laptop.

Thanks in advance!

 

I get mine tomorrow, I can look on mine. I though ASUS ships for free for technical problems?

 

This is kind of distressing (especially since I was planning on buying one in about 3 hours), because I think I've heard other people mention something about keyboard problems.

But yeah, not being able to hit space when you hit S+D - thats a big problem in shooters to say the least.

 

I'm not sure. Over the phone i was told "everything you need will be in the email", but nothing about shipping, besides the address, was mentioned in it.

 

"Warranty & Support
Asus 360 (2 0 2 24) Warranty 2 - Standard 2 Year Global Warranty
0 - 30 days Zero Bright Dot Guaranty LCD replacement (ZBD)
2 - Free 2-way Overnight Shipping for warranty related services
24 - Technical Support: 24/7 (except holidays)
ASUS Notebook Hotline: +1-888-678-3688 (Toll-free)
One Year Accidental Damage Warranty (ADW):
To register go to http://adw.asus.com/content/adp/default.aspx "

Wouldn't this be warranty related?

 

when I go to the link that you provided lonemedic, I tried to submit my application for my warranty, but it says my laptop does not qualify...does anyone else get that?

 

It would be great if someone else who owns one could chime in here...

 

I also can't SD space

 

That link is for accidental damage, which wouldn't apply here. I think you have to sign up pretty quick after you get your lappy in order to qualify.

 

Argh, if this is something that can't be fixed by Asus, i'm not sure how I'd get a refund or anything. For a gaming laptop... this is unacceptable. I like Asus a lot, but this is a major disappointment.

 

can I ask where you guys bought your laptops from? I know playername got his from Newegg, but what about you ExZero

 

ahh crap...i was JUST about to buy this laptop. I am about to buy it from gentech but I doubt its a problem due to the retailer, its probably a problem with the g50 in general. Hope someone can confirm this problem soon and thanks in advance.

 

bought from xotic

 

I just tested it in windows and its not working in say internet explorer. Ill go hop into FEAR really fast and test it in game.

edit: just tested and yes its true the s + d + space combo will not work.

I would have never noticed tho as its not a combination I would use often if ever.

That would be equivalent to backing up, staffing to the right side and jumping at the same time. I dont know about you but I jump moving forward to get over things, I do not jump moving backwards. When in a fire fight I dont jump as most games consider that bunny hoping and will kick you for it and also most newer games give you a horrible aiming handicap for it.

I wonder if it is possible to fix tho still. I do not play O2Jam anymore but if I still did this would make playing harder levels of that game impossible as you have to be able to press s, d, f, j, k, l, and space all at once for certain notes.

 

well I was thinking it would hurt in something like TF2. Playing a scout you pretty much need the ability to hop in all directions in order to avoid fire. Also, in a lot of run 'n gun type shooters where jumping helps you avoid getting hit with rockets and the like this is a big disadvantage in my opinion.

True it wouldn't hurt in something like Counter-strike or Call of Duty where jumping is relatively pointless. However, in other games it is potentially life threatening (gameplay speaking) and might lead to frustration. When you are operating solely on adrenaline and reflexes and suddenly your guy isn't doing what you want him to do will make you toss the notebook against a wall.

Furthermore, in a notebook that advertises itself as "for gamers" I find the inability to use any combination of WASD, Space, shift, and control unacceptable.

Whether this will affect my decision to purchase it - I'm not sure. It is making me think twice however.

 

Lets just hope its not rooted deep at the hardware level and can be fixed. Maybe its simply due to software because of all the combo key presses the G50V has.

Yeah TF2 is a good example with the scout.

In the past testing keyboards at the hardware level I noticed there is a number of keyboard presses that can be active at one time. Like some keyboards would let you press 6 keys while others 8 and it didnt seem to matter what keys they were so given that I would think that this is not hardware related since you can press more keys than 3 on this keyboard.

 

Yeah it does seem a bit weird that it is only the combination of S+D+Space...

I guess the question is when ASUS might be able to provide a fix for it

 

a w e space also doesn't work

 

This is rather disappointing news, since like rush, I was almost going to buy one and then this shows up. It seems that both the G and M 50 series have difficulties in their keyboards.

 

yeah...same for me..I was about to buy this laptop literally seconds before i saw this thread..i will most likely still purchase the laptop hoping that it will have a solution later. But this does make me question it even more.

 

same I was seconds from ordering mine but it seems like a lot of people are having keyboard lag/missed keys/this threads problem...lame

 

I would hope and assume it's not a hardware issue and is something that can be fixed. Shows a lack of testing/qc from Asus though.

 

Does anyone know where we can try to make ASUS more aware of the keyboard issues. A contact email for non-owners? Anything like that? Perhaps a phone number?

 

I have exactly the same problem with my M50VM-A1. The problem seems to be related to the keyboard lag issue.

I would think that a simple bios update would fix the problem for good. Come on Asus.

Has anyone tried using an external keyboard to see what happened?

(During this single post, I spent 3/4 of my time hitting backspace to correct errors made from keyboard lag. Not cool)

EDIT: It's not just SD + space that doesn't work. From the following, check out how many didn't work:

(I'm hitting [key A] + [key B] + space, [key B] + [key C] + space, etc)

qw weerrt ty yu ui io op p[ [] ]\ as sddffg gh hj jk kl l; ;' zxxccv vbbn nmm, ,. ./ qa ws ed rf tg yh uj ik ol p; [' az sx dc fv gb hn jm k, l. ;/ qs wd ef rg th yj uk il o; p' ax sc dv fb gn hm j, k. l/ qz wx ec rv tb yn um i, o.

Okay so from this, I can deduce that on my keyboard, the following combinations do not work with space when held down together.

we
er
sd
df
zx
xc
vb
nm

And that's just with the space key.

Can someone else verify this?

--

EDIT EDIT: In terms of the keyboard lag, its behaviour is so strange. When I use MS Word the keyboard works flawlessley and I never miss a single keystroke. However, when I'm making a post using Firefox the fail rate is probably 40% as of now. That's ridiculous. The problem is really sporadic and comes and goes, but I've never had it this bad before.

However I still think a driver or bios update will fix this issue.

 

yeah...i heard that the m50 has some keyboard lag. But does the G50 have the same keyboard lag? I understand that it cant press certain multiple keys along with spacebar...but if your just typing casually..does it have lag?

 

This is me yping vey casually uing my 50vm-A1. This is me no coreting he rrors that I mae as a result othe keyboard lag that i'm experiecing. The problem comes and goes extremly sporaically. I'd be able to use i for asingle day with no problems watsoever. Buthen there's be days lk thiswhen he keyboard lag isjust unbearable.

EDIT: I'm using an m50vm s oI can't speak for the G50v users. Perhaps someoe would want to verify this.

 

yeah...i hear that it can be a problem due to vista being the OS the m50 operates on. But once again..this is for the M50 and not the G50. If someone could verify the keyboard on the g50 that would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

I thought I had keyboard lag, as last night it seemed that I couldn't type to save my life but I did not see the issue before and do not have it now so I think I was just typing too lazy or something. I am keeping a sharp eye out for it tho.

 

About the multiple keypresses, it may not be a software problem. It may be a limitation of the keyboard controller.

One easy way to check: run ExpressGate (or any other Linux, or basically any other OS) and try to see if the problem appears. If it does, it's either BIOS or hardware. You can still hope for a BIOS fix in that case.

ASUS contact info should be easily googlable, there is also some in the Info Booth_FAQ.

 

Maybe its not much of a solution but if you program one of your mouse button to jump, and you do it while holding the 2 keys , does it work?

 

It would, but we need a fix that allows three buttons held down at once. I am on a m50vm-a1, and I can confirm too that s+d+space does not work, while a+s+space does work. I will test in express gate now to see if it fails there too.

EDIT: It has to be a hardware/bios issue, because like in vista, a+s+space works, but s+d+space does not.

 

Yep, my guess is controller limitation.

 

This is definitely a deal breaker for me. I'm shocked that Asus would let such a design flaw get through, particularly on a 'gaming' laptop. Guess I'll be spending a bit more $$$ to get the Sager

 

I really hope this is fixable because that is ridiculous.

 

Yeah, mine is suppose to arrive here today or tomorrow. For now ill have to use a mouse button to jump. I hope Asus will fix this. For a gaming laptop that sucks so much. Any of you tried with another keyboard plugged in the notebook, like a usb keyboard or something if it do the same thing?

 

You're much more forgiving than me. I won't spend $1,700 and have to use workarounds. For that kind of money it has to be right.

 

It's not that im more forgiving or not, it's that it should arrive at my house today. I can't just cancel my order. Also, I don't have the money anyway to buy the more expensive sager. So im just stuck with it. Unless someone find a solution. Any kind of workarounds will have to do.

 

I just ordered mine yesterday, I think I still would have ordered it, but it's sad to see this thread.


I suppose you could just plug in another keyboard to it if needed as an option? (IE G15)

 

Yeah, an external keyboard will surely solve this.

Don't despair just yet, it may be fixable with a BIOS update.

If it is however the controller, it's sad. Making a good overall gaming laptop, and cheaping out on the keyboard controller for a couple of cents is a really bad idea, in my opinion. If that's the case, then ASUS are getting cheap.

 

yeah...i'll agree with epoch..i havent ordered mine yet..but still intend to later today. however, it did make me research some of the other laptops like the sager but wasnt really attracted to it as much as the g50. hopefully, in the near future, a simple bios update would fix the problem or some other solution would be offered

 

It's funny that you mention that with Firefox. I seem to have the same problem only with Firefox on certain web pages. This is if I am using my Mac or my PC. I don't have that laptop but have been eyeballing it very hard. The typing issue with Firefox gets so bad sometimes that I just type in a text program and then copy and paste into a message board.

 

excuse my lack of hardware expertise, but if its a keyboard controller is it something that can just be swapped out? or is it attached to something like a motherboard that would be a pain in the *** to replace?

 

Actually, I don't know whether the keyboard ctrlr is on the mainboard (in which case it'd probably be soldered) or on the keyboard itself.

 

I can't say for sure myself since I do not have the g50 yet, but, Playername says that he called asus and they sent him a new keyboard....so i'm guessing it is replaceable and is not soldered on

 

Right, keyboard is replaceable and is not soldered and has never been.

 

Well, heres an update on my situation:
I contacted Asus again today, told them i really wasn't interested in sending in my laptop if this was possibly a bios problem or something that couldn't easily be fixed. I mentioned some of the comments on this forum and how people have had similar problems, and they put me on hold for a couple minutes. They told me they're canceling the RMA and are sending a request to their research & developement team in Taiwan about the issue and will keep me updated by email. They also mentioned that another asus laptop had a similar issue and it was fixed with a bios update, and this might be the same case. We'll see.

So far Asus tech support has been great so far, i'm really impressed by how they've been handling the situation. Hopefully they'll fix the problem, but until then i'll be using another keyboard for games. :/

 

Keyboard IS replaceable, on all ASUS notebooks. The question is, whether the controller is replaceable (e.g., on the keyboard board if you pardon the repetition) or not (e.g., soldered on the motherboard).

But that's too much to ask at this point, we're not even sure that the controller is at fault.

 

Nice... keep us updated.

//Micke

 

I want to confirm that the same problem with the keyboard lag happens with my G50V-A2. I just got it yesterday from GenTech(ordered last Tuesday.) s+d+space does not work as well.

Thank you playername for taking the first steps to getting this problem resolved.

 

Nice to hear that. I'll be looking forward for any updates on this problem.

I ordered my G50V-A1 minutes before reading about this problem. Not a deal breaker for me as I don't play games anymore but it'll be nice to have the laptop working like it was supposed to.