1330 - Randomly dropping characters -- software culprit?

1330 with very little use, I must have installed something that randomly 'eats' keystrokes. I'll be typing along and notice a keystroke missing from my text (and I know I hit it correctly). It's almost like I have something installed that all of a sudden spikes and takes the CPU attention away from the keyboard for just a moment and GULP.

It's rather odd actually, as just sitting writing this it has not happened even once. But let me type to type into a webform or something and it can be every sentence I'll miss at least one. Spaces included.

Software installed is the standard dell support stuff, webcam, remote control, norton internet security 2008, java, saome garmin GPS maps, everest, open office 2.40, winzip and nero lite.

Other windows drivers of course, video, sound the whole 9 yards.

I'm not suspecting a hardware problem at this point, but something software-gremlin type..

Ever seen or experienced such a thing?

 

Disable the cyberlink power cinema process under msconfig (startup). I did this a long time ago and it fixed the problem. Let me know if it works for you.

 

not heard of anything software- side that might do that, but what you describe sounds alot like one of the symptoms i had from a faulty keyboard in my old Amilo Xi1546..

i'd be typing, hit all the keys properly, and then i'd noticed that there was about 5 W's and 3 E's missing, ended up that the W key had the gel-layer that sits beneath the plastic-key unseal and peel off, making the button ultra responsive at times (literally you couldn't touch the key without setting it off) to not doing anything when you hammer at it.

test it with an external keyboard (if you have one) and next time it occurs, note what letters are missing, and see if theres any sort of pattern.

that's the only thing i can think of, or try having the Task-manager up and open on the "performance graph" bit and seeing if there are any major CPU spikes anywhere the next time it happens.

 

Hi

I did a clean install and put on only the minimal stuff, so wish that was it. I've looked through and didn't see anything.

Well in that last sentence above I missed about 10 characters. This is really starting to annoy me to be quite honest. These last 2 sentences not a character was missed.

 

Well, I've been watching one of those dual core meters over on the sidebar as I type and the reply above was a miserable experience to type out on 2 of the sentences. This reply so far has been error-free. I can't seem to find a pattern of any keys that drop out more than any other. Even the spacebar now and then. A clean install (2nd one) might be in order. At least I made a backup of a basic install this time.

thanks, I'll keep checking for things though.

 

Anything else ever come out of this? I am having the same problem, and seeing as I write for a technology review site, it's sort of driving me nuts.

Thanks.

Edit: Well, I just spoke with Dell. They're going to send someone out to replace the keyboard. It doesn't happen very often, but when the problem occurs it's very annoying. Hopefully the new keyboard will fix the problem, but I hope they don't screw anything else up in the process of replacing it...

~os