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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.
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?
No luck here. I changed my driver, then went to the on-screen keyboard to test, and the keys still get stuck for me.
The on-screen keyboard doesn't use that driver. It wouldn't be expected to change from this. In fact, the on-screen keyboard has no relation to this issue at all, as it has special functions designed to ease the challenges of using a touchscreen including its own sticky functions. I think the issue, if any, is that our keyboard is acting like a touchscreen keyboard is supposed to, as opposed to the way a hardware keyboard should.
I feel dumb for not considering this. Makes complete sense.
Moving forward, and going back to my scenario, I'm experiencing this sticky key issue with 2 separate keyboards (home and work). 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.
Something else: I have a third driver file in that list, VMware's vmkbd.sys, in my case from VMware Workstation 10. None of you who share the issue would happen to have that installed as well, would you?
Nope, I don't have that one on this system.
And so far your fix is still working, as little sense as that now makes.
I just noticed something else disappointing: The MKC driver uses the same system driver files as the in-box HID driver, and I cannot see anything in the .inf files that would make the two act in any way differently. It's just a different name in the device manager, for vanity purposes.
You can check that for yourself: Go to "Driver details" in the device properties with either driver installed, and you will see that it uses kbdhid.sys and kbdclass.sys. On my system, at least, these are the exact same files no matter which driver is installed.
Something else: I have a third driver file in that list, VMware's vmkbd.sys, in my case from VMware Workstation 10. None of you who share the issue would happen to have that installed as well, would you?
