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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.
Did you actually have the sticky-key issue before? And your steps fixed it?
Or you are just telling us how to install the keyboard?
Thanks for the screenshots Christian. I changed the driver and it seemed to be working. I couldn't get it to stick in my initial tests, but after using it for an hr or so, holding the control button down for longer than 10 or so seconds while selecting files, results in it sticking upon letting it go.
It worked for a while but then reverted back to it's old ways.
I got my sculpt desktop to work after some fiddling. I sent the following to my IT guy.
Hey Erik,
I figured out how to make it work for Window 7 machines. Firstly you have to install the Microsoft mice and keyboard center, this will likely display a 1603 error. To fix this issue I had to do a few things.
context:
The USB dongle actually installs 3 controllers.
solution:
First off you have to install the Microsoft keyboard and mouse center. For some reason this kept giving me error code 1603. This happened on multiple machines (I went around my team testing the install). It does not matter if you try to install “as Administrator.”
I was finally able to install this software if I "install as Admin" as well as having my system properties window open… weird I know but it worked.
This step installs the drivers but does not automatically associate them…
The mouse seem to auto detect right away and the driver was properly installed.
To install the keyboard and num pad ( same driver set) I had to go into the device manager and associate the driver manually.
Control Panel -> human interface controllers -> 2.4 gHz controller -> Update driver -> browse computer and select my own -> choose from a list of installed drivers -> human interface controller -> Tadah!
Anyhow everything is working perfectly and the set is awesome. The keyboard is super quiet and seems to support a natural wrist position. Hopefully this will help someone else.
Attempting to apply the fix while at work, this computer already uses the suggested driver, so this does not resolve my particular issue. I'll keep at it though for others in my boat.
Well, it appears that it may not be the driver, but the act of changing the driver, that can fix the problem. Have you actually tried it?
I did. Changed it to Microsoft USB Dual Receiver Wireless Keyboard, rebooted and tested. Still sticking. Changed it back over to HID Keyboard Device, rebooted and tested. Still sticking.
I'm going to try plugging in an old Dell keyboard, removing all these keyboard drivers, including Mouse/Keyboard center, then hooking it back up and testing again.
UPDATE: This did not work. However, going into safe mode fixes the issue entirely. I'm doing extensive research with various services, startup programs, etc. to see if I can pinpoint anything.
