BS & Laptop keyboard

[Smile]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm looking in this forum on every day during last two weeks, but my problems are still there... So I hope to post a useful thread.

Sorry for my bad english, I'm Italian.

 

I use a HP DV7 1080 laptop, with IBM 101-102 keys enhanced keyboard, and X52. Vista32.

 

BS Istallation and activation were successful, but when I tried to start a training, or a mission, or anything else, as soon as I entered in the pit the keyboard seemed to be OFF. Impossible to unpause, impossible to use ESC command, nothing worked. This happens ONLY in the sim, I tried keyboard in other applications, and I haven't found problems there.

 

I just remapped ESC and PAUSE commands to joystick buttons, and they finally work properly, but even if I unpause the game, the keyboard still does not respond. The only working commands are the X52 axis, button mapped controls, and mouse.

 

So i tried to set focus on BS by pressing ALT+TAB twice... No go..

 

I tried to update keyboard drivers, but a message told me the drivers installed are the most recent avaiable. No go...

 

I've read about regional keyboard layouts, I'm running the English box version. So I changed my regional preferences from ITAlian to EN uk and EN us, but it's the same.

 

To avoid conflicts between system language and keyboard preferred layout I tried to set the same language and keyboard, and I set keyboard autoselection OFF... No go...

 

I tried to remap some commands to themselves, to see if it's an option menu issue. Things aren't going better... No go..

 

I tried to deactivate, uninstall and reinstall BS... No go..

 

I tried uninstalling Saitek drivers and profiler. If I connect X52 usb and launch the sim, BS still recognize X52 axis and buttons properly, but still no keyboard!!

 

THE MYSTERY>> there is only one key combo that works: CTRL+[FN]+[PAUSE], that shows frame rate and rendering info.

 

I'm getting mad to understand where is the core of the problem...

 

My laptop specs:

HP DV7 1080

INTEL CORE 2DUO T9400 @2.53Ghz

VISTA 6.0 32bit Service Pack 1

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

4 GB ram

 

Thanks for reading,

Any help would be great.

[EtherealN]

This seems similar to a problem I had sporadically with a previous keyboard of mine, where using multimedia functions sometimes made the keyboard responsive again. Basically, it seems like special functions manages to garble the transmission of text.

 

Did the keyboard come with any special profiling software? If so, you could look at disabling or removing that to see if that changes the behaviour and thus allows us to have the cause pinpointed.

 

Similarly, connecting a different keyboard should also be able to test that hypothesis.

[Smile]

Yes, my keyboard is provided with special touch buttons -like sensors- for volume, multimedia functions and wi-fi connection... and in BS they work fine..

 

I will try with another usb keyboard, because I don't know exactly where to find preferencies to disable upper panel touch buttons... The On/Off button is in this panel :)

Edited December 27, 2009 by Smile

[Panzertard]

Could HP QuickButtons be interfering with DCS:BS perhaps?

I dont remember any other HP software that may cause such issues, it's been a while since I played around on a HP. But QuickLaunch could potentially cause such issues.

 

How about uninstalling it just as a test - you can always reinstall it from HP again. :)

[EtherealN]

My previous machine was an HP laptop and they didn't cause any issues for me. Obviously though, a single driver change might potentially have changed that. (That machine was also Vista HP32.)

 

The biggest problem I had with the quicklaunch keys on that laptop was that they were so sensitive I sometimes accidently started the DVD player mid-flight.

[Smile]

Thank you very much for the suggestions...:thumbup:

I uninstalled HP Quickplay software a lot months ago (because it was reducing my laptop speed)

 

My laptop was originally provided with these special touchbuttons, from left to right:

Power/Suspension button

Quickplay Software launch quickbutton

Mute button

VolumeControl - works like a touchpad horizontal scroll

Skip prev button

play/stop button

skip fwd button

stop button

wi-fi on/off button

 

Only Power, VolumeControl, Wi-Fi buttons are now working... but I havn't found any software or specific driver for them..

 

All those buttons are shown under Hardware and Devices list, Control Panel, in System Devices list, named (italian) PULSANTE DI APPLICAZIONE DIRETTO (english: APPLICATION QUICKLAUNCH BUTTON ..I guess).

They seems to be working correctly, even if there aren't function assigned, but in the list of devices there isn't a description to understand their own functions, so it's impossible to determine what they do..

[Panzertard]

HP Quickplay is not HP QuickButtons.

Only Power, VolumeControl, Wi-Fi buttons are now working... but I havn't found any software or specific driver for them..

Thats correct - they should work without software as far as I can remember.

 

So - when QuickButtons have been uninstalled - did DCS work?

[Smile]

@Panzertard

 

I think I haven't understand correctly what you mean for HP QuickButtons...

My hp QuickButtons are currently disabled, I guess. They don't do anything... exept for volume, power, wifi.

 

They all compare in the HardwareDevices List, though.

 

I uninstalled HP software the first month I got the laptop, so I think Quickbuttons have been uninstalled too.. They don't do anything since that time.

 

Everything in BS is working, I mean if I assign "pause" and "esc" commands to joystick button they work properly, and the sim works too.. but still no keyboard... I can fly the helycopter and use every switch onboard with mouse, but nothing assigned to keyboard works BY the keyboard.

[Panzertard]

Well, uninstall is important - quite different on how Windows sees our keyboard input - rather than just "disabled quickbuttons", which means "offending software" might be present on the system.

Uninstalling it may remove conflicting software. Disable wont.

 

It's the only idea I have at the moment - why your HP laptop would be any different than other PC's out there.