I’ve been using a wireless keyboard from Microsoft for the past couple months, but lately I’ve noticed that it’s been acting very strange. In particular, sometimes it will continue to enter keys even after I let the key I’m pressing up. So, if I type a word like “very” sometimes I’ll get “veryyy”. Also, sometimes the Shift key “sticks” down. No, it’s not really sticky, but I’ll get letters capitalized even after I let it up. So when I type “Mr. Smith” I might get “Mr. SMIth”. Also, it occasionally loses characters. I know for sure that I hit a key, but it doesn’t get entered. So, “Mr. Smith” might come out as “Mrith”.
I thought maybe my keyboard was just going bad, so I went to CompUSA and bought a new one. This one’s also from Microsoft and is also wireless. I couldn’t find one with just a keyboard, so I had to get a kit with a mouse, too, that I didn’t want. But I plugged in the keyboard and wireless module (the thing that’s got the radio transciever and keyboard and mouse cables coming out the back). But the new keyboard (with the new wireless module thingy) continued to do the same thing as the old one.
I bumped up the priority of the Type32.exe process, which is apparently the Microsoft software that communicates with the keyboard. But that didn’t solve the problem. So, I stole Beth’s regular old fashioned wired keyboard and it seems to be working just fine. I guess the problem must have something to do with the wireless-ness of the other keyboard. So I think I’ll go buy a new wired keyboard (I’m surprised I didn’t have one stashed away in my box of PC parts in the basement). I’ve found that I need the “natural” keyboard style. Otherwise, when I type for a long time, my fingers start to hurt.
I did some web searching to see if anyone else had problems with missing keys or repeated keys with a Microsoft wireless keyboard, and I couldn’t find anything online about it. And Microsoft’s support site didn’t say anything either. So I decided to blog about it so that if someone else has this problem someday, they might find this blog entry and know they’re not alone.
I feel your pain!! I have the MS Wireless Desktop Elite and have the exact same problems you have outlined. I too have scoured the web looking for a solution or even an explanation and have found nothing.
I get a feeling it is to do with wireless interference as I was actually given this keyboard and mouse by a friend who upgraded to a logitech setup and they never experienced this problem. Changing channels on the keyboard when it starts happening usually helps for a while. Although if this is the case i’m confused as to why I never experience any problems with the wireless mouse that came with it…
I have he same problem with a Microsot Elite keyboard which I am using to type this message. As you ca see, I am missing some keys even thouh I have done everything that Microsoft reommends on their website here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838398 to ix this stupid problem. None of it started ocuring until I had to change y bateriiies, and now that I put in al new batteries, the stupid thing brok. How annoying.
I left the typos in o someone can understand what its like typin on my keyboard
Dear All (and i mean it, all the guys/gals out there having microsoft RF wireless keyboards). The problem lies in the surrounding area of keyboard :D. Just check guys, if there’s any strong electromagnetic/magnetic field there.
In mine case, the culprit was the woofer of Creative Inspire 5.1 5200.
Just check it out, you will get nirvana faster, than i FAST.
Gud Luck.
Raj
Great you “solved” the problem. My solution was a lot easier than rearranging my whole office. I switched to Logitech and haven’t had a single problem since. I’ll never buy a Microsoft peripheral again.
@#4/Todd Bradley> My first wireless keyboard was a Logitech wireless, it had exactly same problem. I was never be able to solve it (eventually it broke due to misc. aggressions) and then I bought MS wireless keyboard instead.
Now my MS keyboard went bananas as well, but I just tried moving the receiver box towards the keyboard and for some reason it solved the problem (however it has worked earlier with the receiver at same location, tried new batteries but it didn’t help).
I just had this problem and was able to fix it. In my case it was interference from a 5.8ghz wireless handset that was too close to the keyboard and mouse.
That’s a good suggestion, Bob. We have cordless phones in our house near both computers that had problems, so maybe that was the issue. Regardless, switching from Microsoft to Logitech solved the problem. Maybe Logitech uses a different frequency or something.
Ya! I’m not ehonly one who has this problem. IAMalso leaving the mistakes in so that anyone who reads this can see what it is doing. It’s so frustrating because I spent a heap of money buying this (Microsoft 7000 I think it’s called) and was hoping that it would be wonderful as I have just started studying fulltime. Instead it is infuriating.
I have cordless phone on top of the hard drive and a modem next to it but that’s all. Having said that, I dragged the hard drive closer to the keyboard at the beginning of the sentence above “It’s so frustrating…” and it has improved a bit. Most annoying thing is when I type “heillo” for example and then try to use the arrow keys to skip back a few letter and delete the ‘i’. Its like it freezes! Then eventually, it lets me do it and then I hit ‘end’ to go back to the end of the sentence and… nothing. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
I’ve had a frustrating problem with MS keyboard. It works fine for about 10 minutes then some of the keys stop working. I hit the link button on the receiver and then on the keyboard and it’s ok for another 10 mins. Any thoughts?
Well, my thought is to trash the Microsoft keyboard and get a Logitech. I had multiple Microsoft wireless keyboards that all had this problem, and had multiple Logitech wireless keyboards that didn’t. That was enough to convince me to always get Logitech in the future.
Wireless 7000 here. Willing to bet the issue is the hard drive being directly behind the USB ports on my Optiplex 755. I have no other wirelss devices around! I’ll try a USB extension cable to separate the device from the tranceiever and see what happens 🙂
USB extension appears to have done the trick! Works wonderful now!!
Hi…I need help, I’ve never done this before so please bear with me….I have a wireless microsoft keyboard that has gone mad! when a press a key eg.P it comes up as an O…Tab is working as backspace etc…I’m not sure how to correct this I suspect I have pressed a combination of buttons that has confused things…any ideas?
I have a Microsoft wireless keyboard 4000 and all of a sudden there is no indication with regard to whether the Capitol key is on or off. there is no light nor is there any indication of upper or lower case.
I sometimes have the same issue with my Apple wireless keyboard. Not regularly, just sometimes. As in, “My name is Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddddddddd…” Usually a simple restart cures the issue. When it starts it just keeps going with any key, space, delete, punctuation etc. Last time I noticed it while commenting on YouTube, but I was able to type a TextEdit file, then copy/paste it into the YouTube message.
Odd
Chad