[Solved] Bizarre Issue

[britechguy]

I am sure that each and every one of us have encountered at least a couple of these, and I mean really bizarre issues, over our years in the field. Today was one of those, tied to one of my earlier messages asking why I simply could not get the "Toggle Keys" dialog box that was coming up on one of the new machines to just go away no matter how many times I dismissed it and no matter how many ministrations in Accessibility Settings I did.

Today, when we went to look at this again, the business owner said to me, "The guys tell me that Number Lock is turning off and on without them touching it, and that the button on the keyboard doesn't work, but you can touch the lighted NumLock icon and it will toggle the state of number lock." Well, my BS meter went off the charts but he wanted to demonstrate and, lo and behold, he could do exactly what he said and so could I! Never having seen a keyboard where the number lock or CAPS LOCK indicator lights did anything that indicate, that set off alarm bells. I also decided, just for kicks, to see if the same effect could be had by touching/pressing the CAPS LOCK indicator light - no dice.

I always carry a couple of USB keyboards in my "in trunk stash" as I've had occasion to need them. So I grabbed one and used it instead. The problem instantly disappeared!

I do not know exactly what went wrong with that keyboard, but it's obvious to me that it was sending num lock strikes out as the system booted without anyone striking the key, as the Toggle Keys toggle is hitting num lock 5 times in reasonably rapid succession, which causes that dialog to appear asking you to confirm turning it on, or not.

I doubt I'll ever have a keyboard with this precise defect again, and had the client not shown me what his guys had observed during use, I would never, in a billion years, have looked for this or at the keyboard as the culprit. I have never had this sort of failure with any keyboard, wired (this one was) or wireless in all my years in this busines. [P.S. An older Acer branded keyboard that clearly came with one of their long-gone tower computers, but that had been in use with others over the years.]

 

[jogold]

Came to the doctor's office once and overheard the secretary telling her coworker that the new keyboard is making problems. All of the sudden the letter a keeps going across the document she's trying to type.
I don't even know why I looked in the trashcan but there it was, the the old keyboard, same model, in the trashcan with a piece of trash pressing on the letter a. Shouldn't have happened but it did.
So for dumb luck I looked like a genius and got a new client.

 

[autumn]

Came to the doctor's office once and overheard the secretary telling her coworker that the new keyboard is making problems. All of the sudden the letter a keeps going across the document she's trying to type.
I don't even know why I looked in the trashcan but there it was, the the old keyboard, same model, in the trashcan with a piece of trash pressing on the letter a. Shouldn't have happened but it did.
So for dumb luck I looked like a genius and got a new client.

I had something similar back when wireless mouse/keyboards were first coming in. At a funeral directors, the mouse/keyboard of the other computer in the other room would sometimes connect to another computer. Not all the time but. I can't remember how I worked it out.

 

[jogold]

In funeral home, spooky.

 

[Kerrya]

I had a similar problem with a laptop and a wireless keyboard. Repeating keystrokes randomly.

I finally bought a replacement keyboard but the problem continued.

The wireless dongle was plugged into a USB hub (unpowered) so I replaced the hub with a powered model - same problem.

In the case the only thing that helped was plugging the dongle directly into a laptop port bypassing the hub. That was the only thing that worked.

 

[britechguy]

In the case the only thing that helped was plugging the dongle directly into a laptop port bypassing the hub.

First, thanks for the info.

Second, that's the only thing I will do when it comes to HID devices (yes, I know the D is for device). They've got to be plugged in directly to ports on the machine itself, never hubs. I've had just this kind of weirdness before with an HID and a USB hub, but never for things like printers, cameras, card readers, etc.

 

[GTP]

First, thanks for the info.

Second, that's the only thing I will do when it comes to HID devices (yes, I know the D is for device). They've got to be plugged in directly to ports on the machine itself, never hubs. I've had just this kind of weirdness before with an HID and a USB hub, but never for things like printers, cameras, card readers, etc.

I recently bought a Shure professional podcast boom microphone. I plugged it into a USB Hub (powered) and every 3 mins it would start buzzing. I tore my hair out trying to find why, then realised that it should be plugged directly into a USB port.
No more buzzing.