Curse

jray14 · May 16, 2005, 06:14 PM // 18:14

[size=2]Has anyone else had their keyboard suddenly stop working? This has happened to me all three times I've tried to play with other human players and use team chat in the last couple days. In all the dozens of hours I've played solo, I've had no such problems.

It's weird when it happens... most (but not all) keys, including all the letter and number keys, completely stop working both in Guild Wars AND in any other programs too. Only a few keys like "/", space bar, and half of the numpad continue working. Everything else is hosed.

Until now I've been doing okay with henchmen, but the flying-henchmen and self-burying henchmen bugs are getting so severe that it's just not worth it any more. But at least it's better than my keyboard failing!

I've already submitted a bug report, but I'd appreciate any suggestions from readers!

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Madjik · May 16, 2005, 06:55 PM // 18:55

Do you have another keyboard availiable? Swap it out with a diffrent keyboard if availiable and see what happens. My guess is that your keyboard is standing on its last leg so to speak.

Serafita Kayin · May 16, 2005, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Bad KB.

Also, check your windows install, and your port that you're plugging it into. All of those could be suspect.

jray14 · May 16, 2005, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have an extra keyboard handy, but I'll at least try changing ports.

FYI, it's a Dell XPS laptop bought new in January and a fairly new keyboard too. It seems more likely to me that it's a software problem... for example, I also play Star Wars Galaxies, and for the last 3 months in that game there's been a known bug affecting many users there: about half of the keys on the keyboard stop working whenever server boundaries are crossed or more than 40 or so players are in a single location. So it's not that unusual for a "some of the keys don't work" software bug to happen...

Madjik · May 16, 2005, 07:27 PM // 19:27

aye, but if your keyboard stops working on more then one program at a time, thats a sure sign that somthing is up with the keyboard.

I havent heard of this problem before with guild wars, nor have i personally had any kb issues while playing. This of course doesnt mean it IS your keyboard, but so far thats where the signs are pointing.

kerpow · May 16, 2005, 07:44 PM // 19:44

Make sure you don't have your active cursor in a chat window or anything. Know that shift+1,shift+2, or shift+3 will put you in chat mode as well as {enter} and /.

Don't take this as a smart-ass comment. I've spent an hour trying to figure out why I couldn't get sound only to realize that I accidentally muted it

. Sometimes the answer is too obvious.

jray14 · May 18, 2005, 02:56 PM // 14:56

Well, after switching USB ports and un-plugging my USB game controller, I've had no more keyboard problems. I suspect it's a simple USB issue... on several different computers I've had problems with too many USB devices connected at the same time. Whenever I have more than 4 or 5 at once, at least one of them malfunctions. Kinda funny that Windows claims to support something ridiculous like 128 USB devices simultaneously

.

(and btw, I also encountered the forgot-my-chat-window-was-open hiccup before this... so it wasn't that)

EnDinG · May 18, 2005, 02:57 PM // 14:57

Thats great. Good to know. =) Hope the gaming experience has been good since the fix and will continue!