A717-72G laptop keys stuttering, getting interrupted and doing repeated keystrokes

ElectrifyingOnyx
ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
in Aspire Laptops
Hello all! For a couple of days now, I've been having a problem with both my "W" and Tab Key on my Acer Aspire laptop. Often when hitting the key, it will recognize it as multiple (2-5) keystrokes instead of one, or stutter when holding the key down. The way it does this is a little...weird, so I'll explain it in detail further down.

My System:
  • Acer Aspire A717-72G
  • Running Windows 10 Home

What's wrong (using W key as the primary example):
  • When pressing the key, it will often recognize it as multiple keystrokes, sometimes none at all.
  • When typing fast, the stroke will get recognized even less often (e.g. typing "windows" will often display as "windos")
  • When holding down the key, it "stutters", interrupting at random intervals
  • When pressing another (working) key while holding down the key or before hitting the key, the stuttering sometimes becomes even worse or just doesn't recognize the keystroke even more often.Side Note: The "D" key seems to be better at "interrupting" the broken ones than most others, to the point at which it interrupts the broken key once with every press (while still causing the stuttering)
Now here's the weird part.
These problems don't occur at all times. There are periods where the keys work pretty much flawlessly. No repeated strokes or stuttering, aside from still getting interrupted by pressing other keys, but also periods where it repeats and stutters so much from only pressing the broken key that it practically becomes unusable. These periods appear to be random, but for some odd reason it seems like mashing/going through and pressing a bunch of other working keys seems to temporarily remedy the problem, but interrupts by other keys mostly still occur.

What I know/already tried:
  • The day those problems started occurring, I joined the Windows Insider Program.
  • I did a clean install of windows just yesterday and left the program.
  • Uninstalling the keyboard driver (PS/2) only results in device manager telling me to restart my PC to finish uninstalling, but doesn't do anything else after that.
  • Windows Troubleshoot finds nothing
  • Disassembling one of the keys showed me nothing that might've been stuck/broken, but I can try to do a thorough cleaning if advised.
  • External/on-screen keyboards work just fine
  • The same problem is present when booting in Safe Mode
  • There may be some loose pieces of plastic in my case and where my motherboard is. I've already got out a bunch of those, but there's still at least one rattling, of which I don't know where it is.

If anyone has any suggestions or can give insight as to what might be wrong, I would greatly appreciate it! If I really have to get my keyboard repaired/replaced I would first like to rule out that it isn't anything software-related.
Thanks in advance!

«1

Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    If you game on the machine, what games are you playing?

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    If you game on the machine, what games are you playing?

    Well, mostly games where you do use the WASD keys a lot like Minecraft, Terraria, Genshin Impact, etc. So I know it wouldn't be far fetched to say that the keys are busted because of that, although the tab key doesn't get used as frequently.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    >>>There are periods where the keys work pretty much flawlessly.>>>

    Not busted. Maybe games are not letting go of remapped functionality till a cold boot happens. Try turning off fast startup in ControlPanel's power button app. Then shut Windows down normally. Turn it back on. Then give the keyboard a test workout at this link to see what happens before you get into any game playing.

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    >>>There are periods where the keys work pretty much flawlessly.>>>

    Not busted. Maybe games are not letting go of remapped functionality till a cold boot happens. Try turning off fast startup in ControlPanel's power button app. Then shut Windows down normally. Turn it back on. Then give the keyboard a test workout at this link to see what happens before you get into any game playing.

    First of all, thanks a lot for the reply! I did what you suggested and turned of fast startup under Control Panel > Energy Options > Choose what the power button does. I tested the keyboard beforehand and only rarely noticed stuttering by pressing "D" no unrecognized/repeated strokes yet, though the more I did it the more often the key got interrupted and the other issues came back too. After disabling fast startup, it did feel like it happened a bit more rarely at first, but after a while the same thing happened.

    As I'm writing this, I'm constantly testing if the keys work and it really seems like the stuttering on its own as well as the repeated strokes just come and go as they please, while the interruptions happen almost constantly, although only reallyseem to get triggered when using "D" key. Also looks like that's affecting the Tab button more than the W one

    The way it works is just really bizarre..right now I didn't even get an interrupt for about a minute, but now it's back again.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    edited July 2021
    >>>repeated strokes just come and go as they please>>>

    Any key? Or just the game keys? If only the game keys, check Task Manager processes and apps that may be running in the background. automatically loaded on startup, that may be related to any of the games even though you might not be playing them at  the moment.

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    edited July 2021
    JackE said:
    >>>repeated strokes just come and go as they please>>>

    Any key? Or just the game keys? If only the game keys, check Task Manager processes and apps that may be running in the background. automatically loaded on startup, that may be related to any of the games even though you might not be playing them at  the moment.

    Only the W and Tab key. I already mentioned in the post that I've already done a fresh install of Windows, so the problems still appeared even though no games were installed.

    What I've done now is disable a process called "Update.exe" from startup, which led me to seeing no problems for the longest time (about 10 minutes)

    However before I did that and restarted the system, I had left the laptop on for about an hour without doing anything, and the problems took a lot of "pressing" to actually show up again. Could it be that these issues are somehow linked to how much I use the keys in question? Because it's starting to look like they begin to disappear the longer I don't use those keys while the device is on.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    >>>although only really seem to get triggered when using "D" key. Also looks like that's affecting the Tab button more than the W one>>>

    >>>Only the W and Tab key.>>>

    These seem like conflicting statements? Please explain.



    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    edited July 2021
    JackE said:
    >>>although only really seem to get triggered when using "D" key. Also looks like that's affecting the Tab button more than the W one>>>

    >>>Only the W and Tab key.>>>

    These seem like conflicting statements? Please explain.




    The W and Tab key are the ones that aren't working properly. When holding down those keys, they sometimes stutter without pressing anything else. However pressing different keys, (D key in particular) while W or Tab are held down, seems to induce those stutters even when they're not happening by themselves, which makes it look like they're practically "interrupting" the holding of W and Tab when pressed.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    >>>Often when hitting the key, it will recognize it as multiple (2-5) keystrokes instead of one, or stutter when holding the key down.>>>

    OK. When you momentarily 'press & release' a key, you often get multiple keystrokes. And when you 'press & hold' a key, you get stuttering. What is the difference is between multiple keystrokes and stuttering?

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    >>>Often when hitting the key, it will recognize it as multiple (2-5) keystrokes instead of one, or stutter when holding the key down.>>>

    OK. When you momentarily 'press & release' a key, you often get multiple keystrokes. And when you 'press & hold' a key, you get stuttering. What is the difference is between multiple keystrokes and stuttering?
    Exactly. By now, I'd assume that the stuttering and multiple keystrokes stem from the same cause. That being that when I press the key, it for some reason constantly looses the connecting, thus causing the key to be pressed multiple times even when only hitting it shortly, and causing it to feel like the key is "stuttering" when being held down.

    However the reason as to what causes it to loose connection like this, either by itself or pressing other keys is what confuses me because it seems to be working sometimes, but then again it gets worse at random.

    Also, I noticed that if I press the D key lightly and don't use much force it doesn't cause the keys to loose connection as much. I guess that would point to it being a physical problem with the keyboard?  

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    >>>Exactly. By now, I'd assume that the stuttering and multiple keystrokes stem from the same cause.>>>

    What I'm trying to get at is please define your meaning of the words 'stuttering' vs 'multiple keystrokes'. The reason I ask is that pressing & holding any key results in multiple keystrokes on any keyboard for as long as you hold the key.  If multiple keystrokes has the same meaning as stuttering for you, then this is completely normal 'press & hold' behavior. The momentary press & release behavior you describe is not normal when it results in multiple keystrokes but can likely be adjusted in keystroke timing properties.

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    >>>Exactly. By now, I'd assume that the stuttering and multiple keystrokes stem from the same cause.>>>

    What I'm trying to get at is please define your meaning of the words 'stuttering' vs 'multiple keystrokes'. The reason I ask is that pressing & holding any key results in multiple keystrokes on any keyboard for as long as you hold the key.  If multiple keystrokes has the same meaning as stuttering for you, then this is completely normal 'press & hold' behavior. The momentary press & release behavior you describe is not normal when it results in multiple keystrokes but can likely be adjusted in keystroke timing properties.


    On the key tester website you linked earlier. Pressing the key once would sometimes cause the key to light up multiple times, or when typing something with a "w" fast (like "windows") it would often omit the second "w".
    When holding down the key it would blink rapidly and irregularly instead of appearing as being pressed continuously.
    And if the key doesn't do the blinking on it's own (which it doesn't always do) pressing a key like the D key, while Tab or W are being pressed, will sonetimes cause the blinking instead. Basically the held down key would momentarily flicker whenever I hit the D key.

    I apologize for making it so unclear at first, but I hope you can understand the behavior better now.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    >>>On the key tester website>>>Pressing the key once would sometimes cause the key to light up multiple times>>>typing something with a "w" fast (like "windows") it would often omit the second "w">>>When holding down the key it would blink rapidly and irregularly instead of appearing as being pressed continuously.>>>

    (1) What happens when you do these things in simple texting apps like notepad? If, for example, does pressing & holding the  W key show a sequence of Ws but displays each W in an erratic vs smoothly progressive fashion? If erratic, this might suggest that either background process(s) are also consuming a lot of CPU time or some of the CPU cores aren't being used.

    (2) Why would you need  to the press D key and Tab key (or W key) at the same time instead of sequentially? Are D+Tab and D+W special hotkey combos or shortcuts needed used in some games or apps that you're using? Or just a chance observation?

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    >>>On the key tester website>>>Pressing the key once would sometimes cause the key to light up multiple times>>>typing something with a "w" fast (like "windows") it would often omit the second "w">>>When holding down the key it would blink rapidly and irregularly instead of appearing as being pressed continuously.>>>

    (1) What happens when you do these things in simple texting apps like notepad? If, for example, does pressing & holding the  W key show a sequence of Ws but displays each W in an erratic vs smoothly progressive fashion? If erratic, this might suggest that either background process(s) are also consuming a lot of CPU time or some of the CPU cores aren't being used.

    (2) Why would you need  to the press D key and Tab key (or W key) at the same time instead of sequentially? Are D+Tab and D+W special hotkey combos or shortcuts needed used in some games or apps that you're using? Or just a chance observation?

    1) Yes, the Ws as well as Tab indentations are displaying erratically. If it had something to do with the CPU, wouldn't all keys behave this way? This also doesn't explain why hitting the key once sometimes registers as being pressed multiple times, which it also doesn't do regularly, because it fluctuates between 2-5 times.

    2) Well, W + D simply for walking diagonally in most games. Tab + D I only tried because I wanted to verify that the Tab key was affected the same way the W key was

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    >>>The day those problems started occurring, I joined the Windows Insider Program.>>>I did a clean install of windows just yesterday and left the program.>>>

    Was the clean install the Microsoft-generic Win10 using the media creation tool or the ACER-specific Win10 using the ALT+F10 cold boot method from ACER hidden reset partition?

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    >>>The day those problems started occurring, I joined the Windows Insider Program.>>>I did a clean install of windows just yesterday and left the program.>>>

    Was the clean install the Microsoft-generic Win10 using the media creation tool or the ACER-specific Win10 using the ALT+F10 cold boot method from ACER hidden reset partition?

    The Microsoft-generic one. I didn't even know that there was Acer reset partition.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,187 Trailblazer
    (1) What's the BIOS version number?

    (2) Have you tried installing the ACER version of the Intel chipset driver?

    Jack E/NJ

  • ElectrifyingOnyx
    ElectrifyingOnyx Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    >>>There are periods where the keys work pretty much flawlessly.>>>

    Not busted. Maybe games are not letting go of remapped functionality till a cold boot happens. Try turning off fast startup in ControlPanel's power button app. Then shut Windows down normally. Turn it back on. Then give the keyboard a test workout at this link to see what happens before you get into any game playing.

    First of all, thanks a lot for the reply! I did what you suggested and turned of fast startup under Control Panel > Energy Options > Choose what the power button does. I tested the keyboard beforehand and only rarely noticed stuttering by pressing "D" no unrecognized/repeated strokes yet, though the more I did it the more often the key got interrupted and the other issues came back too. After disabling fast startup, it did feel like it happened a bit more rarely at first, but after a while the same thing happened.

    As I'm writing this, I'm constantly testing if the keys work and it really seems like the stuttering on its own as well as the repeated strokes just come and go as they please, while the interruptions happen almost constantly, although only really get triggered when using "D" key. Also looks like that's affecting the Tab key more than the W one

    The way it works seems just really bizarre... right now I didn't even get an interrupt for about a minute, but now it's back again.

  • compiler
    compiler Member Posts: 32 Troubleshooter
    Have you tried a different keyboard (USB or bluetooth/remote)? Maybe your keyboard itself is defective. Did any liquid get on the keyboard?

    Mel
  • Commodore_1995#
    Commodore_1995# ACE Posts: 98,293 Trailblazer
    Try changing the repeat rate to FAST and setting the touchpad sensitivity to HIGHER SENSITIVITY:
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