06-16-2009 08:02 AM
Hello,
I am having the following problem with my new W700DS:
The numeric keypad (numpad) works fine except for the fact that it only accepts a total of four (4) keystrokes when pressing down a key. This behaviour may be wanted when using it with numlock=on, so that you dont enter the same number too often by mistake, but when having numlock=off, i do not want the arrow keys or home/end/pgup/pgdn/ins/del to just work 4 times when pressing them down and holding them, but as long as i do so. Especially the cursor keys on the numpad are useless when they stop working after being pressed long enough so that four keystrokes were sent to the OS. After that, you have to release the key, and press it down again, which is annoying.
This problem (or is it intended behaviour even?) occurs under Windows 7 as well as Windows Vista on two different W700DS notebooks.
All drivers were installed, no unknown devices in the device manager listed.
All the other keys on the keyboard work fine, just the ones on the numpad are affected.
Can anyone confirm this behaviour (keystrokes on numpad not being repeated after 4th time) or even know a solution ?
Thanks in advance
Simon
06-18-2009 01:43 PM
I never would have noticed, but mine does something similar. Holding down a number key on the number pad, I get three of the same character and then nothing more.
W700 Vista Ultimate x64
Barry
06-20-2009 08:15 AM
Hi Simon:
I think that the unwanted behaviour that you are encountering is a "feature" of the operating system that is intended to make the computer easier to use for disabled people.
It is called "Sticky Keys", and you can turn this "feature" (this PITA) off by doing the following:
1) Go to the Control Panel and then select "Ease of Access Center".
2) Select the choice entitled "Make the Keyboard Easier to Use" (there is a certain amount of irony in that title).
3) Make sure that the box "Turn on Sticky Keys" is NOT checked.
You are not the first person to get caught by this "feature", so don't feel bad. There is nothing wrong with your computer, it sounds like you have just accidentally activated the sticky key feature - perhaps by holding the shift key depressed for a long period of time.
Michael
06-20-2009 09:01 AM
Michael, thank you for posting here, but that doesn't work, at least on my W700 with Vista Ultimate x64. I went to keyboard ease of use as you suggested and sticky keys was unchecked.
Although I never noticed it before, the Numlock toggle on the ScrLk/NumLk key toggles the Numlock light on and off but does not affect the function of the number keypad on the main keyboard. That is to say, the U, I O, J K.L, and M keys keep their alpha functions no matter what the NumLock toggle status. That is fine with me, and I'm glad to have a generic keyboard replacement for the W700 when I need one, but it does mean that those keys are "mislabeled" as far as their W700 use.
Barry
06-21-2009 12:16 AM
Hi Barry:
There is a setting in the BIOS that addresses the issue of converting numberlock settings across reboots when you are using an external keyboard and when you are using the built-in keyboard. I think one of the possibilities is disabling the number lock key, but I am not totally sure about that.
You could go in there and hunt that setting down yourself, but probably the easiest way to see if this is where the fix lies would be to reset the BIOS to the factory defaults and see if that solves the problems.
Michael
06-21-2009 05:57 AM
I looked in the W700 BIOS and found a setting for the keyboard of "independent" vs "synchronized." "Independent" is the default but if you choose "synchronized," you get a new menu for "auto" or "on" or "off" for whether or not to permit the local keyboard "numlock."
However, none of these settings seem to do anything for my W700 numlock. Here's how it works. The "Numlock" on the number pad toggles the number pad between numbers and arrows. It also toggles on and off the "numlock" indicator below the screen.
The "numlock" that shares the "scroll lock" key does nothing. The letter/number keys never switch to numbers. None of the BIOS settings affect these behaviors.
This is interesting, and probably the best choice possible. I wonder what would happen if I left the number pad disconnected from the computer's mother board.
By the way, none of these are problems for me.
06-22-2009 03:16 AM
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, but none has helped with my specific "problem".
The "sticky-keys" feature was interesting to find, I had not know there were that many different settings.
They are named differently in my german version of Windows 7, but none of them seemed to related especially to the numpad.
Noteworthy may be the time it takes an up-to-date System with a quadcore CPU to change a simple keyboard setting - way to long
I havent tried any BIOS settings yet, but I somehow doubt it will work.
08-01-2009 05:09 AM
Hi there,
we have the same "repeat problem" with the W700 (with XP professional, also with vista). Any solutions yet?
10-27-2009 06:12 AM
I submitted a support request to the official support a few days ago and it turns out that the "bug" is a "feature" instead and they can not (or do not want to ?) do anything about it.
My support ticket has been closed as "successfully solved".
After this encouraging encounter with the service hotline I decided to fix it myself and came up with the following small tool:
http://www.cosy-systeme.com/tools/NumpadFix.zip
Feel free to try it if you are as annoyed with this "feature" as I am.
12-14-2009 05:20 PM
Thanks for the tool - makes life a bit easier Of course ideally Lenovo should fix this stupid bug on their side.
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