Solutions to keyboard lag in Asus M50 series

Yep I tried that.

 

I have the M50VM and I experienced it. Take note that I reformatted and installed 64-bit ultimate. This bug is super annoying.

 

Not good Spherific, did you try the fixes of emporiumboutique?

 

Well I can tell you it is certainly fixable with the m50vm-a1, because when I first got the notebook, there was a lot of keyboard lag, so I tried all three ways to fix it. I played around with the touchpad settings, did the regedit, and installed the kb driver from the asus website. Maybe it was some combination of the three, but there is really little to no more keyboard lag.

 

Hopefully asus releases a BIOS fix for this, has anyone called them about it? Is it an acknowledged problem with asus?

Also, I'm considering doing a fresh vista install when I get the laptop, will this hurt or help the problem?

 

Is the kb driver the KB_filter Driver?

 

I have tried all three proposed solutions and they apparently have not worked.

The funny thing is, right now I'm not getting any missed keystrokes. However, when I first turned on the computer I was getting three or four missed keystrokes per sentence. Somebody needs to further analyze the proposed solutions to determine exactly which solution is the correct fix.

Please.

Really, Asus should release a fix themselves. I wonder if they are even aware of the problem.

 

Call them and complain

 

Unfortunately, I no longer have the M50SV-A1 and unable to provide any further testing
It's quite odd that it worked for some people, but not all..... but like I mentioned previously, a simply bios fix should solve the problem entirely. Asus should indeed update the bios asap.

 

I purchased my M50VM-A1 yesterday and I'm currently experiencing the same symptoms.

It is maddening. I will give the Asus customer support line the wining of a lifetime tomorrow morning.

 

What happened to your M50?!

 

I sold it so I could get the G50V-A1

 

Well did you try the solutions in the original post, first?

 

Yes. All three. With no results.

Has anyone tried using an external keyboard?

 

I dont want to scare anybody but I think I am suffering this with my G50V also. It was not there or not noticable at first but that maybe because I was learning the keyboard still and not typing full speed.

My theory is that it has something to do with typing style. If you fully release a key before hitting the next it wont happen but if you happen to be pressing the next key while still holding the last it may result in a missed key press.

Anyways I may have some helpfull info for this thread: My regstry already had the value for the polling it was set at 2ee0 wich is 12000 in decimal form.

So I just changed it to 1 to be safe and not sure if you need to restart for changes to take place but things seem better already.

But I also have 2 other values a maximum polling also set for 12000 (2ee0) and a resend value. I have a feeling that these values may aid in completely fixing the problem if this is the root of it.

It could also just be my keyboard maybe because I am typing faster now I use lighter keystrokes. So I have to practice pressing harder. The C90S keyboard was just pure awesome it always worked even with a very light key press.

Here is an image to aid in what I am talking about.



edit: please nobody panic and think that this is going to happen I need time to confirm, it maybe just my typing being too light. Thing with problems like this is once you start to "look for it" then you create the problem mentally sometimes.

Edit:

DO NOT TRY THIS FIX on the G50V. After I rebooted I could not even get into windows. The keyboard simply does not work at all. Lucky I am at work and was able to steal an external usb keyboard from a computer to get back into windows and undo the changes. Now that I am more aware that maybe I was not pressing the keys hard enough I have not had any issues since last night again anyways. I guess maybe I was falling asleep and my typing got lazy or something, or just some fluke was making the keyboard not want to work right.

 

Just signed up here solely for this thread. I have the M50vm-a1 and experience a lot of keyboard lag. I did all three fixes and it still is a problem. I've noticed it varies with what i'm typing in. When i went to register for this site i had tons of problems with the password box, and AIM seems to be the worst missing about 1/3 of the keystrokes. I also notice when i type www i always get ww, but if i erase the ww and type www as fast as i possibly can, it'll never miss a character (like the computer has had time to adjust to the repeated keys).

It's really getting to the point to where i'm considering selling the laptop. I naturally type around 60wpm and can type up to 100 but because of this lag i am forced to type at about 20. I really hope asus does something about this and doesn't just leave us hanging.

 

Did anyone try running these machines with keyboard lag in Live Linux for a while? If so, does the lag happen? If not, then it's probably caused by software.

Assuming it's not software:
Before taking more radical action, you could try getting a new keyboard to be sent to you by ASUS, under warranty; and replace the old keyboard.

(it's not clear that the problems are due to the keyboard or controller etc., but it's worth trying).

 

Just wanted to give an update. I just flashed my bios to 207 from 205 and so far i have zero keyboard lag. I've only been running it for about 30min so i can't say for sure, but it did without a doubt help, and appears to have completely fixed it.

I don't know if it was just the bios or if it is the bios in combination with the other fixes, i do know i'm pleased with the results.

Thanks guys, and i hope this helps someone else

 

I suggest that people with keyboard lag try to flash that BIOS and report back with the results. So that we determine if the BIOS really solves the problem.

The changelog is not very informative and doesn't mention the keyboard:

(This is M50Vm btw)

 

What do you mean by flashing your bios? o_o

 

I mean updating / upgrading / rewriting the BIOS. See my guide (link in sig) for details.

 

Well unfortunately it's back to missing keystrokes.

I have noticed that sometimes it just misses keys. I will be typing in Word and say i type homework but look back and it says "homwork" i get my cursor to the proper error and hit "e" but it still doesn't type it, i have to really pound the key to get it to enter. It's also not the same key over and over again so not just a bad key on the keyboard.

 

i only did the bios update to version 207 and none of the 3 recommendations made on the 1st post. it seems that the keyboard lag is still there. but im beginning to wonder if its just my soft typing habits.

i have the b1. but the keyboard lag isnt as severe as many describe it. for me, its like one error per sentence.

 

This seems to work for me:

Go to control panel>keyboard. The repeat rate defaults to fast. Bring it down somewhere to the middle. It fixed things for me. Hope this helps.

That's in conjunction with the other fixes, just to be clear. I still miss a few strokes now and then, but it has helped.

 

I have an M50Vm-B2 (with Vista Home Premium 64), and I've had no problems. My settings are:
Tap Zone Enabled, Preform Edge Motion only when dragging, Fast refresh rate, and there is no 'PollStatusIterations' listing in my registry.
(My registry contains 'PollingIterations' (set at 12000), 'PollingIterationsMaximum' (set at 12000), and 'ResendIterations' (set at 3). If those are the default settings (are they?) then I don't think the problem can be directly attributed to Vista or those settings.

My repeat rate is set to fast, and I haven't experienced the problem. I've included a picture of (some of) my settings below (they may be the same settings that everyone else has at default). If the settings and driver version are the same as everyone else they may be able to be ruled out as causes of the lag issue.

 

has anyone forwarded this problem to ASUS? I just bought a M50vm-b2 and this problem seems to be very serious

 

I think that the only solution that we know works is disabling the touchpad from the BIOS. I did that about a week ago and I feel like I'm typing on a real working keyboard again. I tried the other solutions when I first got my M50SV-B1 a few months ago, and nothing worked well.

I know that this is not a solution for some people, especially those who don't like using an external mouse or like using the touchpad. Nevertheless, this was what I did to keep my sanity, especially when I started typing out papers like crazy.

Just my two cents.

 

I would suggest to everyone in this thread to go here: http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx and send a problem report. If we all do this at once maybe someone there will take note and throw it in for the next bios update.

Even if you've done it already, do it again. The goal is to get a number of reports all around the same time. It can't hurt!

 

I don't seem to experience any lag at all when the touchpad is in 'media' mode. I was able to type up an entire page worth of randomness in Microsoft Word without missing one keystroke. Has anyone else tried this?

 

You may have hit on something! I typed out 4-5 lines and not one keystroke missing! I'll type out some longer things later and post any problems (or lack thereof, hopefully...)

 

It's definitely the touchpad. Disabling it in the bios solves the problem. Toggling media mode doesn't help though.

 

I was thinking about buying an m50vm until reading this thread. I'm guessing you've already noticed this in the troubleshooting part of Asus' site, but just in case I'll paste it here:

"Laptop keyboard is abnormal. How do I solve the problem?

Please press F8 when ASUS logo appears during system startup. Enter to Safe Mode and check whether the keyboard works.

If so:

1). Please update BIOS to latest version.
2). Please update ATK0100 Driver if step 1 doesn't help.

If not:
Please contact local service center to check your laptop."​

 

I don't think there are any new BIOS that are released officially from the Asus website. The one you get on the first day is the same one on the website.

 

Asus support has been totally useless. This is frustrating.

 

I have tried the touchpad theory as advised. As to my testing, the keylags have indeed minimized when the touchpad is in Media mode. To further test the theory, this is what I have done.

Go to asus support, download the driver of the synaptics touchpad v 10.1.6 (dated 2007 driver). Re-installed it on the Asus M50Sv, so far I do not see any key lags as for half a day of testing. This may be a solution to the mysterious keyboard lag problem. (note: I did not use the synaptics driver with the driver CD supplied by Asus).

If this fails, my backup option is to use the updated Synaptics driver. v 10.1.8 (from the synaptics website) But using this driver will completely disable the media buttons. Any body bold enough to test this? (Im not going there yet as I am "currently" having no problems with the Driver downloaded from Asus website)

Last, IMHO for most of the touch typist there, I believe that some of the errors with the M50 are just psychological. Because isolating myself on my work PC (a desktop) I also miss some keys occasionally, thus, we should always put this into consideration when testing the asus M50 keyboard lag. Good luck to all of us.

 

Has anyone tried this fix clodus has suggested? Is the problem fully fixed as of yet? I will soon be getting a M50VM-A1 and would like to know how to fix this if my model was affected...

 

Hello guys, no luck. The keyboard lag is still there, at first it was okay, but the more you use it, the more the keyboard lag happens. It happens occasionally around 20% of the time.

Have also tried the latest synaptics driver from the synaptics website. Also did not work. So I guess this eliminates the touchpad thing maybe. Aside from the updated synaptics driver, have also incorporated emporium's solution 1 and solution 2. Still no luck. Lag still happens.

2 more things that I have observed.

1. From time to time while typing, there are minute blinks on the screen. (Yes the screen blinks I still do not know what causes it, and am using the latest nvidia driver from laptop video to go v177.98 (have not tried v178 yet)

2. The ambient light sensor.
At times, disabling the ambient light sensor seems to takes away keyboard lag. But in other occasions, enabling the light sensor takes away the keyboard lag. So still not sure if this has something to do with the lag.

I guess the only solution left is the asus bios. My previous bios was 205 and keyboard lag does not happen when I disabled the light sensor. Only skips about 5% of the time.
But when I updated the bios to 207, that is the time the keylag became worse. Anybody care to share the 209 bios mentioned? This is now not available from asus support site.

My advise to deviant, M50S is still a very good laptop. Only the keylag frustrates me. If this gets fixed then it is a perfect laptop. I suggest M50Vm as it has all the new upgrades. Also, I think the keyboard lag only happens with M50S and G50. But did not hear any keylag complaints from M50V users.

I plan on plugging the M50Vm bios in the M50Sv bios. But still do not dare to try as I believe all the motherboard components are different. Anybody who has tried this solution yet?

 

Where have you been looking? There have been several recurring complaints from M50V users about keylag.

 

Just a lot less I suppose.

 

Are you all aware of the solution to keyboard lag / computer freezing from the ASUS G50?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283541&page=4

Namely, they found that the Synaptics process(es) have their priority to Above Normal, and from time to time they freeze the computer (which may also cause keyboard lag). The solution is a script that sets their priority to Below Normal. (or another more radical solution, disable touchpad from BIOS but this loses the touchpad functionality)

Given the possible correlation above with the touchpad, I think it's a useful thing to try. First, check if the processes have Above Normal priority. If so, there's a good likelihood this solution will help. Then try disabling touchpad (if possible) and that script.

Read to the end of the thread, the script has been worked on; and also be aware about the timings issue (different timings on different computers). I think there also exists a version that waits until the processes start before setting their priority.

 

I saw that before, and Im willing to try it once I get my own unit. (And if it has KB lag, cos I saw that other people didnt have it)

 

Thanks for the info EBE. Browsed through the G50 forum, and the permanent fix was fixing the Bios. The timing can work, but one has to constantly modify the timing each time you install a new software/game. Workable, but a bit hassle to do.

Gentech also suggested to update the ATK drivers (beta). A lot of solutions, but still thinking if I want to spend more of my time looking for a solution. Or maybe just enjoy the PC, ignore the lags, and just wait for the bios update. Hahaha!

Or, just wait for synaptics to release a new driver with a 'low priority' driver.

 

Hi guys, I think I found another solution to the keyboard lag issue.
Using the G50 forum as reference, many people claim that it is the synaptics driver that causes the keyboard lag. With the following reasons/observations

1. keyboard does not lag when touchpad is disabled in the bios

2. Setting synatpics drivers "SynTPEnh.exe" and "SynTPHelper" to 'below normal' setting under processes. But you have to set this each time you boot vista. There are several automated solutions out there by fixing the script at startup.

I personally find the two solutions above an inconvenience and already tired of waiting for Asus' Bios update.

Using the observations of the contributed by asus M50 and G50 users as reference. Modified synaptics driver in another approach rather than setting the priority. Currently my keyboard does not lag for the time being. Will give it a few more days of testing then will post my results.

My solution:
Go to task manager, go to the 'process' tab. And look for the two synaptics drivers "SynTPEnh.exe" and "SynTPHelper". Right click on each of them individually. Click on 'properties' then click the check box to run the synaptic drivers in "Windows 98/ME compatibility mode".

With the synaptics driver now set to win98 compatibility mode.

I still have a theory that the ambient light sensor has something to do with the keyboard lag as well. (No solid proof yet). During testing with ambient light sensor enabled, the keyboard lags/skips 95% of the time with the ambient light sensor on.

Turn the light sensor off. Restart the computer. Now with the light sensor off, and the synaptics at win98 compatibility mode. I experienced no keyboard lag. Have a 99% accuracy. Where the 1% may just be psychological as I am trying to find the keyboard lag as i type along, and may be causing the Hawthorne effect on myself. (humans make errors while typing too you know. So the 1% may be my error)

Let me know if this solution works for you guys. This is still a WIP.

 

Setting the synaptic drivers to win98 compatibility mode, do you lose anything or nope?

 

Answering your question. No and I don't know.

No.
I am using the latest synaptics driver (because I wanted to isolate the asus synaptic driver problem previously). With this, you can use all the special functions of the touchpad. Edge motion, tap zones, virtual scrolling, etc.
The only change I see here is how to access settings of synaptics touchpad. Normally right clicking the system tray icon will do in Vista/XP mode. In 98 compatibility mode, you have to go to control panel, then click on the 'mouse' icon.

I don't know.
I did not bother to re-install the asus synaptics driver to check the media keys. Second, I don't use the media keys anyway (i find it useless as there are no ff and rewind buttons). My only concern is the volume keys. To compromise, I set the volume keys in Tap zones. Where upper right corner is volume up, and lower right corner is volume down.


2 day update:
So far, my solution has to be used in tandem with emporium's solution.
Emporium's solution has a 75% fix on the keylag. Setting the synaptics in win98 compatibility further lessens the keylag to 99% upon my testing for 2 days.
Once you turn on edge motion, tap zones, and pointer refresh rate. Key lags will start popping again.

 

I have the M50Sa and I've tried every solution in this thread and had no success. The problem I'm having is that when I play a video game, occasionally it will be that when i press any key on the keyboard, the game freezes after every press. It goes away after a few minutes, but comes back very frequently. It seems like the problem is triggered when I'm pressing many keys down at once, but I'm not exactly sure.
At this point I'm very tempted to return this laptop and buy a cheaper one because this problem is one of the most frustrating things I've ever had to deal with on any of my computers.

 

2008-10-15

Final testing on my Asus m50Sv keyboard lag solution.
On my long research in the notebookreview.com forums, it was proven that disabling the touchpad from the bios fixes the keyboard lag problem. However, the drawback to this solution is that you will not be able to use a touchpad, and an external mouse is required. This completely defeats the purpose of having a laptop. Unless you plan to use the unit as a pure desktop replacement.

A lot of good souls suggested tweaking the synaptics touchpad settings, e.g edge motion, pointer refresh rate, tap zones, etc. Modifying the registry was also another solution by adding a pollstatus iterations line, win98 compatibility mode, etc. However, none of these seem to work.

Hence, I decided to uninstall synaptics touchpad and try to look for updated synaptics drivers online. Have found some unofficial updated Synaptics drivers on laptopvideo2go forums, but I did not bother trying them out anymore as I ran out of patience testing and wasting my precious time looking for a synaptics fix.

Eventually, I settled for the windows PS2 mouse driver. How I stumbled on this was a bit of luck. Initially uninstalled the synaptics driver, restarted the PC, and plan to install the unofficial drivers to see if it fixes the problem. Upon computer restart, I was surprised to find out that the touchpad still works! But I only get the basic mouse functions. Namely, tap, double tap, and normal pointer motion (no palm check, edge motion and the other gimmiks). Unfortunately, there is also no virtual scrolling the function that I use most of the time when navigating webpages and working on excel. Also, no palm check means minor typing nuisances when your palm brushes on the touchpad. This happend to me around 3x typing this document. Well, I think this is still a good compromise to eliminate the keyboard lag. I get a responsive keyboard and at the same time retaining basic mouse movements on the touchpad.

So my solution is as follows:
1. Disable touchpad in Bios
2. Boot windows, then uninstall synaptics touchpad in windows completely
3. Reboot, run CCleaner to ensure all the synaptics registry junk is eliminated (just to be triple sure)
4. Reboot again, this time going into the Bios, then enable the touchpad
5. Save settings, run windows.
6. When Windows starts, it should have automatically found a default windows PS2 driver for the touchpad.
7. There we go, no more keyboard lag!

And this is what I have discovered for now. As proof, this entire document was typed using the M50, and no keyboard lag experienced. Now I can safely say that this solution is a 100% fix.

Still thinking if I am willing to spend more time finding a synaptics fix. Anybody have the time to test the synaptics fix? I can send you links for the unofficial synaptics drivers.

For the bold ones out there, I have already tried the unofficial synaptics 11.1.24 driver. (unofficial means not found in the synaptics website) And the keyboard lag still exists.

It's either Asus makes a new bios update, or Synaptics makes a more compatible driver.
From other testing M50Sv bios 207 and bios 209 (now removed from asus website). The pc boots faster with the 207 bios, so reverted my bios back to 207.

 

I would remove Synaptics but I use the scrolling feature A LOT, will I be able to do that without it?

EDIT: Never mind, canceled the processes and my scrolling went away. I'm not sure what to do... Also it won't let me change the compatibility setting on the processes.

 

Yeah, it stands to reason that a default Windows driver would eliminate the issue as well, I should have thought of that myself.

And yeah, Windows does have a default driver -- that's why even while you install Windows you have the use of your touchpad.

Thanks for sharing the info.

 

If this is the only way to fix the KB lag in the M50VM laptop, I might need help doing all those things

Thanks Clodus.

(But hopefully I wouldnt have much problems when my laptop arrives)