Need help with Dell laptop running XP

[SecondCor521]

My oldest son "somehow" fiddled with my laptop and messed up the keyboard.

If you are running XP on a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop (or similar), could you please run regedit and let me know what values you have under

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/ControlPanel/Accessibility/KeyboardResponse

You should find the following keys:

AutoRepeatDelay
AutoRepeatRate
BounceTime
DelayBeforeAcceptance
Flags

Thanks for any help. This is driving me nuts.

2Cor521

 

[soupcxan]

On my Dell Latitude D630:

AutoRepeatDelay 1000
AutoRepeatRate 500
BounceTime 0
DelayBeforeAcceptance 1000
Flags 126

Are you sure this is the cause of the problem? Not something simpler like turning on numlock, turning on accessibility mode (makes keys sticky), or changing the keyboard default language from US English?

 

[Alan]

I have a Dell laptop inspiron E1505 but run Vista. However, I attach a screen shot with the values you ask for.

 

[kumquat]

Vostro 1000 - XP

 

[Nords]

My oldest son "somehow" fiddled with my laptop and messed up the keyboard.

I don't know if this helps with the problem but: our kid loaded the Cyrillic alphabet on her Dell Inspiron 505, and she switches to English by using CTRL-SHIFT.

 

[SecondCor521]

Thanks all.

The symptom is that I am unable to type very fast (normally I type about 80 wpm) -- the keystrokes are just not accepted as fast as they used to be.

My son indicated he did fiddle with the accessibility options, so I went in and turned those all off, but that didn't fix it. (At least I think I did, the UI is not very well designed there.)

I also tried an old restore point, but that didn't work either.

I'm trying the settings in msgs 2 and 3, and it's still not back to "normal" but it's not bad.

I don't think he loaded a different keyboard mapping.

2Cor521

 

[TromboneAl]

I have an Inspiron E1505 running XP:



Perhaps there's something that's eating up processor power, and the computer is too busy to keep up with your typing. Run the Task Manager and watch the CPU usage to see if it is too high.

Also do a virus scan and malware check.

 

[W2R]

I was thinking the same thing as Al. Maybe it is doing something CPU intensive in the background.

 

[SecondCor521]

TAl, W2R,

Good thoughts. Task Manager and CPU are both OK. I was surprised to discover that I don't have antivirus installed on this machine. Will try that.

Thanks again,

2Cor521

 

[SecondCor521]

AVG reports it's totally clean. Oh well. I may boot into Linux and at least that way figure out if its Windows or hardware.

2Cor521

 

[Mike1968]

Have you inspected the Control Panel>Keyboard Settings? My Repeat Delay is set to the 3rd marker and my Repeat Rate is set to Fastest. I would think it is the Repeat Rate. Anyway, Just a thought....

 

[target2019]

Check these things:
- Windows update, and force all the updates to install. Could be something is hung up, and stealing processing time.
- Check the CD burn folder. I've run into situations where items in que cause a slowdown.
- Check msconfig for unusual items in the Startup tab. You can turn off a few at a time, reboot, and see if the problem goes away.

 

[SecondCor521]

@Mike1968, yup -- both pegged on the fastest settings.

@target2019 -- Will check Windows update. Nothing in the CD burn folder. Turned off a few things in msconfig, but I'm not hopeful.

2Cor521

 

[target2019]

Is the typing problem the same in all applications? Web, Word, Notepad, etc.?

If you boot into safe mode, do you have the problem?

 

[target2019]

"click on msconfig .. services.. and unselect the ATIHOTKEYPOLLE" - reboot.

Check this thread for other ideas if that doesn't work.

 

[SecondCor521]

@target2019: Yes and yes, and I don't have that ATI service running.

2Cor521

 

[kumquat]

Probably time to say 'WTF' and re-format and re-install everything. Say thanks to Mr. Gates. Or, you could try some flavour of Linux.

 

[heyduke]

i know you said AVG found nothing but I would still go download malwarebytes (its free) update it and run it thoroughly (takes several hours) ... see if it finds anything because there are a few bad things out there that can cause that...

 

[SecondCor521]

@kumquat...Yup, I agree. I've dealt a little with Puppy Linux before so may install that instead. It's nice to control your destiny sometimes.

@heyduke...I may try that right before I install Puppy over the top of everything

2Cor521

 

[TromboneAl]

Are you by any chance paying the computer with stock options instead of cash?

 

[calmloki]

Not super on point, but ran across this and thought some in computer difficulties might have a use for it:

3 Remarkable File Recovery Tools

Haven't used or even downloaded any of these yet, but #3, with disk cloning capability, looks extra good. Anyone here tried any of them?