Bought a new usb keyboard and cant press 2-3 keys at once

channelx99 · Basic Member Joined: 26 Aug 2005

I just dropped $60 on a Saitek Eclipse keyboard and Ive been having a lot of trouble with it. I had a hard time getting windows to recognize it in the first place and had to point it to a bunch of windows and sp2 folders. Well I finally got it installed and now I have trouble pressing multiple keys at once. For example I can only press 2-3 arrow keys at once and if I try to press more than that down it wont register.

Is there a special driver I can download for usb keyboards that will fix this problem? Its annoying because I have certain programs that require many keys pressed simultaniously such as stepmania and all 4 arrow keys. Thanks for any help you can give me because Im really regretting spending so much on a keyboard thats inferrior to my cheap keyboard that came with my pc.

Laundry · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject:

Everybody (or at least I think) has this problem. My keyboard costed a LOT of money, but I can't do most hands.

EDIT: Seems you have a bigger problem. I thought it was just the arrow keys.

Kalek · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:

I didn't have any problems on my old HP keyboard. I haven't tried the arrow keys on my new one since I've recently changed my playing style.

These are both PS/2 though.

xbskid · Trick Member Joined: 06 Sep 2004

While the Saitek keyboards are nice to look at, it's quite typical of keyboard manufacturers to only allow the recognition of 2 to 3 simultaneous keypresses. If you want more (As in up to ~7), then I suggest you get a shiny IBM keyboard (Not sure about the USB one, but the PS/2 one should definitely give you up to 7 simultaneous keypresses). Enjoy.

DoodieBody · Basic Member Joined: 14 Jun 2005

Nope, there is nothing you can do. To try and explain it, every keyboard works off of a "matrix." So, for example...think of it like a grid. The combination A1, B7 might register as the letter "K" for example. There are no diodes in most keyboards, which means the electricity is free to take any path it wants. When pushing 3 or more keys the keyboard can run into a problem of the electricity following a path that makes it look like you pushed a key that you didn't (if I had the time to draw a diagram it would explain it better). What you are experiencing is known as "blocking." The keyboard is preventing a phantom character from being registered.

Short answer...buy a new keyboard if it's really that big of an issue.