Keyboard Problems - please help!!!

[SCPO]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard & mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

I have tried online help with HP which was disasterous since the tech
just couldn't grasp the natue of my problem. In the Control Panel, I
thought maybe there was a keyboard setting for US-Engish which needed to
be "turned-on" - couldn't find any settings of this type for keyboards.
Went out and bought a new Microsoft keyoard & then a new Logitec -
neither worked correctly either. I have screwed around with the
"Compatability Settings" for the the various programs that don't work
correctly, until I am literally pulling out my hair. (This feature of Win
7 seems to be as useless as tits on a bull!)

I have tried evrything I can think of - can some kind soul lend a helping
hand??

BTW: The Win 7 OEM pre-installed is the 64-bit version. Might it be
prudent to install my own Win 7 Home Premium in the 32-bit mode? Whadda
ya think?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!

Fair winds and following seas,

SCPO
USN (ret)

 

[richard]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard & mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

I have tried online help with HP which was disasterous since the tech
just couldn't grasp the natue of my problem. In the Control Panel, I
thought maybe there was a keyboard setting for US-Engish which needed to
be "turned-on" - couldn't find any settings of this type for keyboards.
Went out and bought a new Microsoft keyoard & then a new Logitec -
neither worked correctly either. I have screwed around with the
"Compatability Settings" for the the various programs that don't work
correctly, until I am literally pulling out my hair. (This feature of Win
7 seems to be as useless as tits on a bull!)

I have tried evrything I can think of - can some kind soul lend a helping
hand??

BTW: The Win 7 OEM pre-installed is the 64-bit version. Might it be
prudent to install my own Win 7 Home Premium in the 32-bit mode? Whadda
ya think?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!

Fair winds and following seas,

SCPO
USN (ret)

See if there is a specific keyboard driver available and install that.
Check the device manager for any problems.
It is also quite possible that it is a bad keyboard.
Buy a cheap USB keyboard and see if that works.

 

[SCPO]

Thanks for replying Richard!

Have tried new keyboards (both USB) - no dice!

Device manager says keyboard is working corectly (doesn't it always?) and
that drivers are up-to-date. Have searched for new and updated keyboard
drivers - no dice either!

Thanks,

SCPO
USN (ret)

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and
wondering if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard &
mouse with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop
and resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop
window - instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when
trying to type a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers -
this is all very frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

I have tried online help with HP which was disasterous since the tech
just couldn't grasp the natue of my problem. In the Control Panel, I
thought maybe there was a keyboard setting for US-Engish which
needed to be "turned-on" - couldn't find any settings of this type
for keyboards. Went out and bought a new Microsoft keyoard & then a
new Logitec - neither worked correctly either. I have screwed around
with the "Compatability Settings" for the the various programs that
don't work correctly, until I am literally pulling out my hair. (This
feature of Win 7 seems to be as useless as tits on a bull!)

I have tried evrything I can think of - can some kind soul lend a
helping hand??

BTW: The Win 7 OEM pre-installed is the 64-bit version. Might it be
prudent to install my own Win 7 Home Premium in the 32-bit mode?
Whadda ya think?

I can't begin to answer all your questions or solve your problem, but
here is what I do have. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 which I
installed myself on a home built computer. I also run (and love)
FastStone. I just checked, and the "x" key works as it is supposed to in
the FastStone console. I suspect the problem has more to do with HP than
Windows 7 or x64.

I will never buy a computer with a preinstalled system, especially from
HP. I've worked on friends' HP computers and have learned to loathe
them. If you really got OEM preinstalled, then you should have OEM
disks, which you could install it fresh. But you probably got a HP
proprietary system with unique drivers, and a repair disc, at best. You
may not be able to install the retail Win 7 you have because it won't
have the HP drivers, and you may not be able to get them from HP. I
don't know if that is true for sure, but it is something to keep in mind
before formatting the hard drive.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard& mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

What do you mean by "old" programs? Are you talking about stuff you used
to run in XP?

Try opening up a Notepad window and see if the keys you press show up
correctly on there.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Roy Smith]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard & mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

I have tried online help with HP which was disasterous since the tech
just couldn't grasp the natue of my problem. In the Control Panel, I
thought maybe there was a keyboard setting for US-Engish which needed to
be "turned-on" - couldn't find any settings of this type for keyboards.
Went out and bought a new Microsoft keyoard & then a new Logitec -
neither worked correctly either. I have screwed around with the
"Compatability Settings" for the the various programs that don't work
correctly, until I am literally pulling out my hair. (This feature of Win
7 seems to be as useless as tits on a bull!)

I have tried evrything I can think of - can some kind soul lend a helping
hand??

BTW: The Win 7 OEM pre-installed is the 64-bit version. Might it be
prudent to install my own Win 7 Home Premium in the 32-bit mode? Whadda
ya think?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!

Fair winds and following seas,

SCPO
USN (ret)

The problem with buying a PC with an OS preinstalled is that they tend
to load up a lot of crapware and trial versions of software. Have you
tried uninstalling all of HP's preinstalled stuff to see if that
corrects the keyboard behavior?


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Thunderbird 3.1.11
Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:54:28 AM

 

[KCB]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard & mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

I have tried online help with HP which was disasterous since the tech
just couldn't grasp the natue of my problem. In the Control Panel, I
thought maybe there was a keyboard setting for US-Engish which needed to
be "turned-on" - couldn't find any settings of this type for keyboards.

Open Control Panel, select 'Region and Language'. Look at all the tabs to
make sure your settings are correct, including pressing the Change
Keyboards... button on the Keyboards and Languages tab. I think you will
find your issue.

 

[LouB]

Open Control Panel, select 'Region and Language'. Look at all the tabs
to make sure your settings are correct, including pressing the Change
Keyboards... button on the Keyboards and Languages tab. I think you
will find your issue.

+1

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Device manager says keyboard is working corectly (doesn't it always?) and
that drivers are up-to-date.

AFAICT, all that Device Manager means is that the interface to the
driver seems normal. It doesn't test the hardware...

Kind of worthless, IMO.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, richard

Went out and bought a new Microsoft keyoard & then a new Logitec -
neither worked correctly either. I have screwed around with the

[]
It is also quite possible that it is a bad keyboard.
Buy a cheap USB keyboard and see if that works.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The
learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer
exists. -- Eric Hoffer (quoted by Elsie McGill <[email protected]>, 1997-6-1).

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard & mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

[]
You say 'in about 50% of my "old" programs'. Does that mean that in the
rest, it works OK? Does it work in, say, Notepad?

If it works OK in some of your old prog.s, and the new ones like Notepad
that came with the new system, this will tell us something.

When you say "a random string of numbers", is it _only_ numbers, or just
random characters? Is it always the _same_ characters (i. e not truly
random) - e. g. if you type "qwerty" twice, do you get the same string
of characters twice (if so what?), or something different?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The
learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer
exists. -- Eric Hoffer (quoted by Elsie McGill <[email protected]>, 1997-6-1).

 

[Roy Smith]

AFAICT, all that Device Manager means is that the interface to the
driver seems normal. It doesn't test the hardware...

Kind of worthless, IMO.

But in the OP's initial message he stated that he also used a Logitec
and Microsoft keyboard and the problem persisted. So I would doubt that
all three keyboards are defective... also all three were USB keyboards.
Wonder how a PS2 keyboard would work, if he even has a PS2 port for it.


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Thunderbird 3.1.11
Saturday, July 16, 2011 6:36:55 PM

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

But in the OP's initial message he stated that he also used a Logitec
and Microsoft keyboard and the problem persisted. So I would doubt that
all three keyboards are defective... also all three were USB keyboards.
Wonder how a PS2 keyboard would work, if he even has a PS2 port for it.

And what has this to do with my comment? Just curious...I couldn't tell.

 

[me again]

I haven't seen this problem with anyone else in this group and wondering
if it is unique to my system??

I recently bought a new HP machine which came with an HP keyboard& mouse
with Win 7 OEM preloaded.

My problem is: in about 50% of my "old" programs the keystokes are
incorrect for the key struck. IE: in FastStone (which I use to crop and
resize photos) striking the "X" key 'should' bring up the crop window -
instead it zooms in on the picture; in other programs when trying to type
a sentence all I get is a random string of numbers - this is all very
frustrating. (Hope this is clear??)

I have tried online help with HP which was disasterous since the tech
just couldn't grasp the nature of my problem. In the Control Panel, I
thought maybe there was a keyboard setting for US-Engish which needed to
be "turned-on" - couldn't find any settings of this type for keyboards.
Went out and bought a new Microsoft keyoard& then a new Logitec -
neither worked correctly either. I have screwed around with the
"Compatability Settings" for the the various programs that don't work
correctly, until I am literally pulling out my hair. (This feature of Win
7 seems to be as useless as tits on a bull!)

I have tried evrything I can think of - can some kind soul lend a helping
hand??

I will assume that when you type "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's
back." it looks correct. (That sentence checks every ASCII key.)

Therefore I think it is NOT the "keyboard" but the functions attached to the keys
that are the problem. In other word some keys have more than the key-code attached to
them by the software so that the operating system launches particular software
such as "my documents" "calculator" "help" and so on and so forth.

If that sounds like your problem, then run taskmgr (ctrl+alt_delete) and look for
processes with names like TFNF5 or TPWRTRAY.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, me again

I will assume that when you type "the quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog's back." it looks correct. (That sentence checks every ASCII
key.)

[]
You can omit "'s back" if you say "jumps". (-:

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

In message <[email protected]>, me again

I will assume that when you type "the quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog's back." it looks correct. (That sentence checks every ASCII
key.)

[]
You can omit "'s back" if you say "jumps". (-:

But then you lose one of the two ASCII characters that aren't letters


Obviously, the original sentence above doesn't check every ASCII key,
only the lower-case letters, single quote, and period (if you type one).

The OP's problem remains a mystery to me; sorry I can't offer real
assistance here...

 

[me again]

In message<[email protected]>, me again

I will assume that when you type "the quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog's back." it looks correct. (That sentence checks every ASCII
key.)

[]
You can omit "'s back" if you say "jumps". (-:

But then you lose one of the two ASCII characters that aren't letters


Obviously, the original sentence above doesn't check every ASCII key,
only the lower-case letters, single quote, and period (if you type one).

The OP's problem remains a mystery to me; sorry I can't offer real
assistance here...

FOr pete's sake .. let the Op Reply as to whether he is talking about FUNCTION keys
and the macro actions they invoke.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

In message<[email protected]>, me again
[]
I will assume that when you type "the quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog's back." it looks correct. (That sentence checks every ASCII
key.)
[]
You can omit "'s back" if you say "jumps". (-:

But then you lose one of the two ASCII characters that aren't letters


Obviously, the original sentence above doesn't check every ASCII key,
only the lower-case letters, single quote, and period (if you type one).

The OP's problem remains a mystery to me; sorry I can't offer real
assistance here...

FOr pete's sake .. let the Op Reply as to whether he is talking about FUNCTION keys
and the macro actions they invoke.

Here's a quote from the original post which should answer that question:
"in FastStone (which I use to crop and resize photos) striking the "X"
key 'should' bring up the crop window - instead it zooms in on the
picture; in other programs when trying to type a sentence all I get is a
random string of numbers"

 

[KCB]

On Tue, 2 Aug 2011 08:32:50 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

In message<[email protected]>, me again
[]
I will assume that when you type "the quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog's back." it looks correct. (That sentence checks every ASCII
key.)
[]
You can omit "'s back" if you say "jumps". (-:

But then you lose one of the two ASCII characters that aren't letters


Obviously, the original sentence above doesn't check every ASCII key,
only the lower-case letters, single quote, and period (if you type one).

The OP's problem remains a mystery to me; sorry I can't offer real
assistance here...

FOr pete's sake .. let the Op Reply as to whether he is talking about
FUNCTION keys
and the macro actions they invoke.

Here's a quote from the original post which should answer that question:
"in FastStone (which I use to crop and resize photos) striking the "X"
key 'should' bring up the crop window - instead it zooms in on the
picture; in other programs when trying to type a sentence all I get is a
random string of numbers"

It is disappointing that the OP has not replied; I'm interested to see if
the situation has been resolved.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It is disappointing that the OP has not replied; I'm interested to see if
the situation has been resolved.

Yes...that is an all too common occurrence. It bugs me too.