Some combinations of 3 keys on Keyboard of Acer Predator Helios 300 laptop not working.

minecrafter5

Hi,
I recently bought (3-4 days ago) an Acer Predator Helios 300 laptop. All the keys of the laptop work when pressed separately. But I have found two combinations of 3 keys that do not work.
1. Tab + W + A (A combination I use frequently in one of my games)
2. Ctrl + W + 2 (Not really an important combination for me but found it in a post on this community here where another user found this issue wile gaming. I tried it too but it didn't work for me too.)

I didn't update any drivers or my BIOS. I only ran Windows Update multiple times in the past 3-4 days, and according to the update history, I didn't update the Keyboard's driver. I checked if my BIOS is the latest version, it is. These combinations (and there might be more) are not only NOT working in games, but also on online keyboard keys checkers.

I am asking this question mainly because I need to know whether this is just a software issue or a hardware issue. Or is it not an issue at all but just how the keyboard is supposed to behave. If it is a software issue, I would love to know what I need to do to fix it.

**Also, it would be really helpful if some of the Acer community members (as many as possible) could verify these combinations on their own laptops and post whether they worked in their laptop or not.

minecrafter5

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in this question @christy1. I checked with some of my friends who have Acer Predator laptops and it turns out their laptops also have this issue. This is because of the ghosting of keys. Refer this page, it has a detailed description of ghosting. This is why there are anti-ghosting keyboards in the markets. The problem I faced with the Tab+W+A combination seems to be with many other triplets of keys that are close to each other on the keyboard. For eg, T+G+H or U+I+J. So in the end, it is as I feared, the keyboard is supposed to behave like this, this is neither a hardware issue nor a software issue.

christy1

minecrafter5
Try these.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-do-i-reassign-hot-keys-for-my-keyboard-703f897c-ad72-db5d-8e64-0928873d712f

1. Open the Activities overview and start typing Settings.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click Keyboard Shortcuts in the sidebar to open the panel.
4. Click the row for the desired action. The Set shortcut window will be shown.
5. Hold down the desired key combination, or press Backspace to reset, or press Esc to cancel.

minecrafter5

christy1 said:

minecrafter5
Try these.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-do-i-reassign-hot-keys-for-my-keyboard-703f897c-ad72-db5d-8e64-0928873d712f

1. Open the Activities overview and start typing Settings.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click Keyboard Shortcuts in the sidebar to open the panel.
4. Click the row for the desired action. The Set shortcut window will be shown.
5. Hold down the desired key combination, or press Backspace to reset, or press Esc to cancel.

Hi @christy1,
Thank you for your answer but it seems Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center is only usable for Bluetooth and/or External Keyboard and mouse, not for the keyboard that the laptop has. I installed it, ran it, saw the supported devices and then came to this conclusion.

ADDITION to my question:
I tried running the Windows 10 Troubleshooter but it didn't report any problems.

christy1

@billsey anything? 

minecrafter5

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in this question @christy1. I checked with some of my friends who have Acer Predator laptops and it turns out their laptops also have this issue. This is because of the ghosting of keys. Refer this page, it has a detailed description of ghosting. This is why there are anti-ghosting keyboards in the markets. The problem I faced with the Tab+W+A combination seems to be with many other triplets of keys that are close to each other on the keyboard. For eg, T+G+H or U+I+J. So in the end, it is as I feared, the keyboard is supposed to behave like this, this is neither a hardware issue nor a software issue.