This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hi,
I have one of these keyboards at home and at the office, in the office I have the whole desktop including the mouse, but at home I only have the keyboard. I upgraded from the Microsoft Ergo 4000 keyboard that I've used for many years. So far I'm enjoying the keyboard but I have an issue that I was wondering if there was a way to fix?
The one at work doesn't seem to have this problem although I use the keyboards differently, at work it's mainly for typing and coding, at home I use it for typing and gaming.
The issue:
The Shift, Alt, and Control buttons when pressed numerous times seem to stick even when they aren't being pressed. For example if I have 3 out of 5 files I want move from one folder to another, if I push and hold control, select the files in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th position with my mouse, after I drag them to the other folder and release the control button, if I click on the 2 remaining files in the original folder, both files are selected even though I'm not holding control down so you'd expect only 1 to be selected.
Same issue happens in games where I've bound hotkeys to use modifiers such as shift, control, or alt. If I'm alternating between 1 and shift-1, eventually just pressing 1 will result in shift-1 being registered. I initially thought that maybe stickey keys was being turned on but I've confirmed that is not the case.
Both cases are resolved by simply pressing the button that's sticking and that fixes it, but when using multiple modifiers, it's hard to determine which one is sticking so it usually results in pressing each of the buttons, alt, control, and shift once until it's back to normal.
Additional Information:
None of these problems seem apparent on my work desktop. I'm using windows 8.1 Pro at home and windows 7 pro at work. At work, my receiver is plugged into a usb switch as I use it for 2 pcs, the switch is 2 ft away from my keyboard position in line of sight.
At home, the usb receiver is plugged into the back of my desktop under my desk, out of line of site? (could this be a problem?)
Any ideas you have to solve either of these issues would be most appreciated.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I've found a solution:
Open Device Manager
Under Human Interface Devices, locate the Microsoft Hardware USB Keyboard
Right click, Properties
Power Management Tab, Uncheck allow the computer to turn off this device to save power
That fixed it for me, no need to uninstall/change drivers.
Any news on this issue? I am suffering from the same issue. It is making what is an otherwise perfect keyboard unusable.
Is anyone at MS even looking at this?
The issue in this thread is not specific to the Sculpt, and it is only an issue on Windows 8/8.1. It seems the newer keyboard drivers are geared towards a touch keyboard, and the "sticky modifier keys feature" is something that is always enabled. This may be helpful for some, but making this an optional setting would be very desirable.
The issue with the Sculpt forgetting about keys can't be by design - it's a very bad bug. First, it doesn't affect other keyboards I've tried on Windows 8.1, so it certainly isn't a universal Windows 8.1 design. Second, it doesn't exhibit the behaviour in safe mode.
Here's an easy example: you can't play most arcade games with the Sculpt because keys get stuck down (modifiers) or stop responding (other keys) after a random delay of 5-30 seconds (seemingly dependent on how busy the machine is). If there was a general "no one can play any games with a keyboard" issue in Windows 8.1 then I think we'd all know about it. So it may affect other keyboards, but certainly it must be a small minority. So it's a bug, and one that very badly affects this keyboard.
Well…
so I "solved" my issue by switching places of my work and home keyboard. I brought my Logitech Wave from work which WORKS FLAWLESSLY and has much nicer multimedia keys and higher quality wristpad, even though it's 3x cheaper.
And I have taken my Sculpt to work, because I have Windows 7 there and this, magically, eliminates half of the issues the keyboard seems to have under Win 8. So far I'm happy. Another pro of this swap is that Sculpt is much more silent than Wave, so I don't annoy people at work as much as I used to, and at home there's nobody to annoy.
The issue in this thread is not specific to the Sculpt, and it is only an issue on Windows 8/8.1. It seems the newer keyboard drivers are geared towards a touch keyboard, and the "sticky modifier keys feature" is something that is always enabled. This may be helpful for some, but making this an optional setting would be very desirable.
Well…
so I "solved" my issue by switching places of my work and home keyboard. I brought my Logitech Wave from work which WORKS FLAWLESSLY and has much nicer multimedia keys and higher quality wristpad, even though it's 3x cheaper.
And I have taken my Sculpt to work, because I have Windows 7 there and this, magically, eliminates half of the issues the keyboard seems to have under Win 8. So far I'm happy. Another pro of this swap is that Sculpt is much more silent than Wave, so I don't annoy people at work as much as I used to, and at home there's nobody to annoy.
