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.
very true. this is not a hardware issue. my keyboard works perfectly in Ubuntu (13.10). only in windows, (ironically) I have faced this "sticky key" issue.
I agree, this is not a hardware issue. I can recreate this all day long on 2 different machines (both running Windows 8, then 8.1) with 2 different Sculpts. I can also confirm that the keyboard works perfectly on Ubuntu 12.04 when trying the tests there. Even further, the keyboard works perfectly in Windows 8/8.1 when booting into safe mode.
Though, I can confirm that some of the smaller function keys across the very top do physically stick if pressed at certain angles, but that is beyond the scope of this topic.
This could be an issue specifically related to windows 8/8.1 although I'd like others to confirm.
As I mentioned when I first started this thread, I have the keyboard at both home and work. The one at home is only the keyboard and the one at work is the keyboard/mouse desktop.
I've tried everything in this thread every time a new post is made and I cannot get the keyboard at home to stop getting stuck when those keys are held down for 5-10 seconds at a time. I even RMA'd my first one thinking that it was just a keyboard issue and it turns out it wasn't. I have windows 8.1 at home.
I've never had this problem on my work computer which is windows 7 pro. I'vetried to replicate the issue doing exactly what I know makes it stick at home and it won't stick on my work computer.
The only thing I haven't tried was to try my keyboard from home on my work computer. The desktop (keyboard/mouse) has a different receiver than the keyboard alone I'm wondering if the receiver could be the problem. I'll take my work computer home this evening and see if I can replicate the issues by trying my work keyboard on my home pc and my home keyboard on my work pc.
very true. this is not a hardware issue. my keyboard works perfectly in Ubuntu (13.10). only in windows, (ironically) I have faced this "sticky key" issue.
This is definitely a hardware issue with specific units.
That's categorically false. If I reboot into safe mode my keyboard works fine, but otherwise I have all the issues discussed in this thread. If a software-only change causes the effect, then it can't just be a hardware issue.
After a number of seconds, seemingly proportional to how busy the machine is, any currently-depressed key stops auto-repeating. If this is a modifier key, no key up event is received and so the key remains stuck down until pressed again. Other keys simply stop repeating, so for example if holding the letter 'A' you only get so many key events and then that's it. It doesn't stay stuck down; it's probably the same underlying bug as with the modifier keys (shift etc) but the effect varies depending on how the key type is handled.
Other keyboards I've tried work perfectly, incidentally. And changing the driver (many times) as described in this thread has had no effect on the issue.
