Ctrl-key gets locked (stuck) when it is held down for a couple of seconds

Anonymous
2013-10-30T17:44:08+00:00

Hello,

I am using a Surface Pro with Type Cover.

When I am selecting multiple items e.g. in Outlook or Windows Explorer I apparently hold down the Ctrl-key and left-click the items with my mouse.

When I select many items it takes certainly a while to select -- if that time span is let's say 10 seconds (may be it's just 5 sec) then my CTRL key locks, meaning, I do not have to hold it down in order to select multiple items. Problem is that you e.g. can't even hit the Windows button on the keyboard and not even the hardware Windows button on the Surface. If your machine falls into Sleep mode you cannot type the password any more. You have to reboot.

It took a while to find out that the Ctrl key was the trouble maker -- then after identifying it as such I tried to unlock it by hitting it 1 more time which works.

So, that is a remedy, however, if you do not notice that the Ctrl key gets locked then your machine also slows down, even the Task Manager (e.g. Performance tab) doesn't update any more. That looks like an overload -- may be because Thousands of 'key down' messages are processed, even if the key is not pushed any more? Just a speculation.

One more thing: the Ctrl key gets only locked when I make the selections with the mouse -- if I select them with the Surface Pen the Ctrl key gets NOT locked.

BTW, I tried two mice: bluetooth and wi-fi -- both deliver the same result, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I am not aware that something like a 'sticky key' would exist for the Ctrl key? Does it? At least I have not turned on or seen such access feature activated. Also, no, my keyboard is not filled with crumbs. And it is unlikely that it would lock when I use the mouse but not if I use the Pen...

And the Ctrl Lock-down seems wrong -- is it?

Type cover bug? or am I unaware of the 'sticky key' feature?

Frank

Surface
Surface

The Surface family includes Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, and other Surface products. Surface is designed to help organizations, students, and consumers be more productive.

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Anonymous
2013-11-04T22:32:13+00:00

Greetings all,

New update: 5/21/14

We are still investigating this issue and hope to make progress soon.

Just a quick update (2/10/14).

We are actively investigating this issue and will work on a resolution to ensure our customers have the best possible experience on their Surface devices.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-23T02:44:37+00:00

    Thanks a lot for this. Quite accurate. 

    The solution for me was, since I have a surface pro, on device manager, Human Interface Devices, there was this "USB input device". On "Properties -> Power Management", I've just unchecked the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" and solved it.

    Again, thanks a lot for the very detailed post. Helped me a lot. 

    I'm going to have to test it over some time, but this seems to have fixed the sticky key problem without having the side effects of the other "fix".

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-01-17T22:00:33+00:00

    Thanks a lot for this. Quite accurate. 

    The solution for me was, since I have a surface pro, on device manager, Human Interface Devices, there was this "USB input device". On "Properties -> Power Management", I've just unchecked the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" and solved it.

    Again, thanks a lot for the very detailed post. Helped me a lot.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-01-12T22:06:40+00:00

    I was having the same issue with Type Cover.  Any key, when held down for a few seconds, would stop repeating (for example, down arrow to scroll a long document).  Ctrl key would get 'stuck' even after releasing.  I disabled 'Microsoft Input Configuration Device' and detached/reattached the Type Cover and the issue seems to have gone away.

    Disabling "Microsoft Input Configuration Device" in Device Manager seems to do the thing

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-12-13T22:32:23+00:00

    Is there any update to this issue, I am also experiencing the exact same problem.

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