Envy 14 keyboard misses repeated keypresses

I just got my new Envy 14 yesterday. Overall pleased except for one problem: the keyboard often misses the 2nd keypress of rapid, repeated keystrokes, such as when you type the oo in loop.

For example, I just pressed enter twice to get to this new paragraph. Only one enter registered. And in the word pressed in the prior sentence, it was originally spelled as presed because the second s was missed. It happens with the backspace keys, too.

Is this a possible problem with my hardware? I notice that if I press harder, the double keystroke seems to register. However, in normal moderate-force typing, the first letters are never missed! I'm not sure why the 2nd keypress is the only one missed.

Is this a learning curve issue? I came from a Lenovo Thinkpad, which did not have chiclet-style keys.

 

That's not normal. I haven't had that sorta problem with my envy14 (or any other computer).

no clue what could cause that though

 

Ugh.

I doubt it matters, but the first thing I did was to install a clean copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. (I have my own, separate copy.) I installed all drivers from hp.com, albeit I didn't see any drivers that are obviously for the keyboard.

 

there aren't any.

was it doing this before the clean install?

there is a chance it is being caused by sticky keys.

which. really. why the hell do they exist.

go to the ease of access center. go to "make the keyboard easier to use"

check if filter keys are on.

if so. turn them off.


edit: also while there go click on the setup stuff for filter keys and sticky keys and turn off the shortcut that lets you turn 'em on.

filter keys turn on if you hold down right shift for 8 seconds.

sticky keys turn on if you rapidly hit shift like 6 times.

 

None of the keyboard accessibility options are enabled. I don't use those.

All I did before reinstalling was to burn the recovery DVDs, so I am not sure. I will check the BIOS and other pre-Windows loading places to see if I can reproduce.

 

filter keys is about the only thing I can think of that would accidentally make this happen (it could have been enabled somehow if you didn't check)

If they really aren't enabled then I really have no clue why this is happening.

 

I can confirm this issue as well on a fresh install machine. I noticed that suddenly some key presses do not register, or register in the wrong order. I should mention that I have a really high words per minute.

 

Hello arencambre,

If you only noticed this issue after doing a fresh install of Windows and not prior, I unfortunately have no explanation. However, if either you didn't put enough time into the keyboard before the format to be able to tell or did notice it before, I feel pretty confident in saying that it is a hardware issue.

The reason that I say this is that I had to return an HP dv6tse which I had purchased for a very similar reason. The keyboards on these laptops are pretty nice when they work, but terrible when they aren't functioning properly.

The problem that I experienced with my dv6tse was that the h key would not register a keystroke unless it was pressed down abnormally firmly, and not at all unless pressed in the very center of the key. I could literally hold the key down on the far right edge and it would not register anything at all.

Perhaps it simply seems that the issue is only occurring after double-letter keystrokes because you strike the key less firmly or in a different manner the second time around?

I may be wrong, but my suggestion is this: On every key on the keyboard test how accurately it recognizes a keystroke by pressing the key very rapidly and lightly, particularly around the edges of the key, and if your keystrokes aren't registered as desired, send the laptop back. This is my preferred testing method because I want to know that every key works as it should even if it is pg up or f 11, which I don't use very often. However, another valid and perhaps simpler test would be simply to type out a really long document full of random words and compare your accuracy on the Envy to that of another computer. If they aren't nearly identical, I would be fairly confident in saying that it is the keyboard and not you.

When I first called tech support about the issue I was experiencing on my dv6tse the representative explicitly told me to return it because it was a hardware issue that would be troublesome for me to fix, so I took her advice and ended up getting an Envy instead. From what I can tell the keyboards on the dv6tse and the Envy are nearly identical, so the first thing that I did when I got my Envy was test the keys, and everything checked out. That being said, the keyboard isn't perfect. I type pretty fast myself and it isn't incredibly rare that my keystrokes just won't quite come out as I would have expected they would have on my old Toshiba that wasn't chiclet style.

Good luck!

 

I have a similar problem with the Shift key where it will capitalize the first 2 letters (i.e. sticks too long)

Havent had anything like yours though.

 

Yes, it happens after a clean Windows 7 Ultimate install, but the problem is unrelated to my OS: it even happens in the BIOS setup where you enter a power on or setup password. You see an asterisk for every keystroke, and I can easily duplicate the problem there, too. About half the time, rapid double keystrokes are missed.

These rapid keystrokes have never been a problem with any other computer; I am no superman, so I'm sure I'm not able to type faster than the keyboard controller can understand.

I called HP tech support today. After a 55 minute call (!), I am going to send it in for repair tomorrow.

 

I sometimes get that, too.

 

Does this happen randomly or mainly with repeated presses of the same key? For me, random keystrokes are fine; the problem is multiple, rapid keystrokes on the same key.

 

Just wanted to share two brief videos of the problem that I just took: YouTube - Several missed keystrokes on HP Envy 14 and YouTube - HP Envy 14: missed keystrokes. Both are in 720P. You can clearly hear me pressing each key more than once, but the final result is mixed.

 

Here's an update. I sent in my laptop for service, and after 4-5 weeks (!!!), I got it back. Same problem still persists even though they claimed they fixed the keyboard.

This is frustrating. What I've also noticed is that if I type another key too quickly after releasing shift, that key will also be capitalized. So it's as if there is a lag after releasing a key when the key is still "active", which means shift's effect lags and repeated keystrokes get missed. Sure is frustrating.

 

this may be a dumb suggestion, but a suggestion nonetheless.

Turn the laptop off. Take the battery out. Leave the battery out.

Turn it back on.

Does stuff still happen. If no, the battery is bad and this is an odd glitch that happens sometimes (this is what google tells me. I am not going to argue with google today). You probably need a new battery. edit: To be more specific, this is what an old Tom's Hardware forum post tells me. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/49975-35-typing-keyboard-slow So whatever. Yes the battery is in but not being used, no that doesn't seem to matter).

If the answer is no it may somehow someway be the motherboard/keyboard still. I dunno.

 

After further reading the battery thing may be more of a "yeah dude, my battery was old as hell and it and some radeon ati xpress was breaking things too"


I dunno. Since it happens in the Bios it 100% is hardware. Either keyboard, battery being stupid somehow, or motherboard, or the keyboard's data ribbon or something.

 

Um, I'm scratching my head on this one. Battery cannot possible have anything to do with this.

 

yeah it can if the computer is built in such a way that it breaks power acpi stuff in the motherboard horribly.


just try it out and see what happens.

it being turn the laptop off, pull out the battery, unplug it from the ac adapter, hold the power button for like 15-20 seconds, plug it back into the ac adapter, leave the battery out, see if the issue still happens.


It's just something to rule out. It happened A LOT with a certain run of toshiba laptops and some older sony laptops.

 

L675 Keyboard misses letters when typing or is gen... - Page 2 - Toshiba Forums

toshiba thread about this stuff (where they found out it was a bad run of batteries, among other things)

 

Win 7, control panel -> keyboard properties. Play with the settings.

 

I have this poblem too; from the day I got my computer. I just have to make sure I smash the keys down when I have to hit the same key twice. also; I cant hit the edge of a key or it wont register. I have to hit the exact center.

 

I'm going to go ahead and be that guy who says that it's probably a user-end issue, not a hardware issue. Different keyboards have different feels, and you might have used a keyboard that takes lighter presses so long that the E14's less-responsive keyboard seems broken to you, when in reality it's just not compatible with your the typing style you've developed.

Of course, it's also possible that your keyboard actually has a problem. I have a Wacom drawing tablet that has a similar problem, in that two short lines written quickly in close proximity end up being connected, even if I've clearly removed the stylus from the board. Makes it a huge pain to study Chinese on Skritter, the "氵" radical is especially a pain in the butt, since those two little lines at the beginning get misrecognized ever time if I don't slow down my writing speed. All that to say that it's possible that there really is an issue (hardware or software), but my money's still on a difference between your expectations for a keyboard and the reality of this keyboard.

 

gcrussell, I can confirm the pebkac does not apply here. Or at the least, his typing style (lol?) is not an issue. I tried very hard to simulate his issue on my keyboard and could not reproduce it no matter how fast I pressed. But, I too doubt its a hardware issue. betting my chips on win 7 keyboard settings.

 

yeah but it happens in the bios too.

So that rules out a windows 7 issue (or well windows 7 on its own)

 

I was actually thinking something more along the lines that he doesn't hit the keys hard enough to register the keypress on the second go. I've had intermittent issues with some of the same things - two letters capitalized on the first shift, letters dropped from my typing, but it always seems pretty apparent to me that it's on my end, user error rather than hardware error.

Not that the Envy 14 is immune to hardware error... last night my bad GPU crashed on Half Life 2... A game that my old 8400M GS had no problem with, and my Envy crashed on it...

 

well. that's because your gpu is deteriorating, more so.

...which sucks badly. You're gonna need to (when you get back in the states) pray they swap out the motherboard quickly or get a friend to order an envy 14 motherboard/you order an envy 14 motherboard to a friend's place in the states and then you gotta swap stuff out on your own.

 

I having a missing-keystrokes problem with my HP Envy 14 2020NR.

However, it only happens when I wake from sleep while on battery power -- and even then, it seems not to happen 100% of the time -- perhaps 85% of the time?

If I am having the problem, rebooting the machine (while still on battery power) seems to fix it. I need to do more experimentation to see if the problem begins anew after the reboot fix, when sleeping/waking.

However, when I am on A/C power, I never experience any problems with keystrokes not registering. I'm scouring the HP forums right now, and will post something new there if I can't find any answers. I rarely take my laptop out, so it's not a big deal, but it's certainly aggravating.

 

I have realised something, I too have this problem, but I think I found the cause of it, the Envy's keyboard needs to be fully pressed to register the button press, I have watched the video and replicated it, and realised that if you tap it really fast, sometimes you aren't actually pressing the button down fully even though it feels like you did, and so it doesn't register.

 

I'm going to bump this, mine is doing it this morning. Thanks, Lee. I don't know if there is any way to adjust the sensitivity of the keyboard, but it's pretty annoying. Maybe I just need to press harder, but some days it registers a lighter press..

 

I ended up learning to live with it.

 

The E14 has a keyboard that (keys) must be depressed fully to register from my experience.

 

I see. It's just annoying. seems like sometimes it does it and others it doesn't. I don't like typing to feel like a conscious exercise of the mind and body haha. but this is the best computer I have ever owned or used