I am a keyboard bigot (holdover from my Unix VI days :-) and I like to
use keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-D (delete) Ctrl-C (copy) etc.
Periodically these shortcut keys stop working in some programs such as
Microsoft Outlook, EditPlus (a shareware editor similiar to the Visual
C Editor), etc. However the shortcut keys continue to function in
other programs such as MS Word, MS Excel. I should mention I am
running office XP.
The only solution appears to be to re-boot my system.
Several times I think I have figured out maybe what is causing the
problem only to be proven wrong.
My current theory is that it has to do with pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del to
enter my password after being away from my machine for a while (like
after going to lunch). In a situation like this where the screen saver
(and possibaly powersaver) mode has kicked in, it takes a while for
the Unlock Computer dialogue panel to appear. If, in my impatience, I
press C-A-D again, the keyboard functionality appears to be lost.
It has been two days now since I've had to re-boot, but I've gone that
long before (most generally I have had to re-boot about once a day).
This is extremely frustrating. The people in our IT support group are
stumped.
Does anybody know of a patch from MicroSoft (or an avoidance
procedure).
I should mention I am on XP SP 1. |
Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
23 Jul 2003 01:37 PDT
Why not use another keyboard and see if the same problem happens.
Perhaps the problem is in the keyboard, not in the software.
Have you tried cleaning your keyboard? That has happened to me in some
instances, and disassembling and cleaning the keyboard (a tedious job
though)fixed it. Some keys get stuck because of dirt accumulating over
time.
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Clarification of Question by
johnp1d-ga
on
23 Jul 2003 07:51 PDT
Opps, sorry. I should have mentioned that to eliminate the keyboard as
a suspect we replaced it with a newer one (RIF's leave excess
equipment :-().
One other thing I should mention. I actually have two machines, one
running XP and another one running Win2k. I use an Avocent SwitchView
A-B KVM switch to switch the Keyboard-Video-Mouse between the two
machines. Once, when the problem was occuring we switched the ports on
the KVM that the two macines were using (without powering off - Gasp).
The problem stayed with the XP machine which in our minds further
eliminated the keyboard and also eliminated the KVM switch as the
culprit.
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Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
23 Jul 2003 10:19 PDT
Have you tried removing the KVM switch? I'll not rule that out until
the removal is done. Or perhaps one of the cables you use to attach
the KVM switch to the CPUs has the problem.
If not, I wonder how much RAM the XP CPU has. It might be too low. You
might also have a startup program that later on interferes with the
shortcut keys with the passage of time.
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Clarification of Question by
johnp1d-ga
on
23 Jul 2003 11:33 PDT
My IT support department has also suggested I remove the KVM for a
while. I have resisted that because I need daily access to both
machines. Removing the KVM would reqire a second Keyboard-Video-Mouse
on my already overcrowded (physcial) desktop. As a last resort I will
probably do that.
The XP machine has plenty of memory - it is a 1.7MHz Pentium 4 with
512 MB of Ram. Over-utilization of memory should not be an issue
either, looking at task manager right now I have 100 MB free.
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Clarification of Question by
johnp1d-ga
on
24 Jul 2003 08:53 PDT
Well, so much for the Ctrl-Alt-Del theory. It failed again even though
I was VERY careful not to do a second one.
So I have gone ahead and set up to use NetMeeting to access the second
machine and I have REMOVED the KVM switch.
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Clarification of Question by
johnp1d-ga
on
24 Jul 2003 11:50 PDT
Okay, so much for the KVM. Came back from lunch and the problem had
re-appeared.
Just as a side note, the shortcut keys still work correctly with a
program accessed via netmeeting remote desktop sharing. That is to
say, I try Ctrl-A in Outlook to select all items on the XP box and it
does nothing. I netmeeting into the Win2k box from the XP machine, do
a Ctrl-A in Outlook to select all items and it works.
I am increasing the price to $35.00
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Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
26 Jul 2003 03:56 PDT
Thanks for trying out mine and your IT dept's suggestions. I guess we
say that the problem is more likely software-originated now.
Let me see, you mean that when you start up, the shortcut keys work,
then after a point they stop working, right? Hmmm... probably you
could check the options in each program that allow you to change the
shortcut key assignments, in case they may have been changed.
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Clarification of Question by
johnp1d-ga
on
29 Jul 2003 07:39 PDT
I cant find any options in Outlook that allows one to change shortcut
assignment keys. (I'm using Microsfot Outlook 2002 (10.3513.3501)
SP-1).
I asked my IT department if they knew of any, this was their reply:
"Historically speaking, some programs would allow you to “remap” your
shortcut keys or setup custom shortcut keys. You really don’t see
this too much anymore, and I’m relatively certain this is not possible
or has not been done in your problematic applications."
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Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
18 Aug 2003 06:56 PDT
This question came up on top of the list of questions so I thought I'd
check it. Sorry I didn't reply anymore, since I could think of no
other solutions to your problem. How are you doing with it now?
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Clarification of Question by
johnp1d-ga
on
18 Aug 2003 07:40 PDT
Unfortunately the probelm still occurs. Not necessarily every day, but
at least a couple-three times a week. I even noticed that I had
installed XP powertoys at some point. I un-installed that, which made
no difference. My IT department is of the opinion I should do a
re-install of XP (shudder). Given the amount of work needed to get my
enviroment re-created after a re-intall I have decided to live with it
for the time being.
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Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
18 Aug 2003 08:28 PDT
Hmm, I seem to have forgotten my other suggestion on startup programs.
What other programs does your computer automatically load on startup?
I was suspecting one or some of them might have been interfering with
the shortcut keys in MS Outlook and others.
Maybe a reinstall will certainly solve the problem. I think if you
installed Win XP in FAT32 format, you might be able to overinstall
Windows without removing all your other applications, though custom
settings in some of them might be lost. Overstall works in Win98SE
(which I still use), I'm not sure how it will work in XP. But if your
WinXP is in NTFS format, I think you will have a lot more headaches,
since you might have to clean install.
Well, these are two other suggestions on my mind now. Keep on asking
your IT department about it, they might suddenly come up with an idea.
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Request for Question Clarification by
chellphill-ga
on
18 Aug 2003 08:34 PDT
Hi johnp1d-ga,
Sorry to hear about your problem.
Couple of questions for you if you don't mind?
1.) Have you checked the possibilty of the keyboard drivers needing to
be updated (if applicable)
2.) Have you tried a USB keyboard?
Thanks,
chellphill-ga
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