Keypresses not being registered in IE; am I going crazy?

[Special K]

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a strange problem when using my Filco FKBN104MC/EB and typing into text boxes within Internet Explorer - sometimes it seems to not register some of my keypresses.  It's always just a single letter or space at a time, and I only seem to have the problem when typing into text boxes in IE.  I've never seen it happen when typing in MS Word or other applications, which leads me to believe it's not a hardware issue.  I can feel and hear the keys actuating, plus I tend to bottom out most of the time anyway, so I don't think it's an issue with my typing style.  The only thing I can think of is that it might be some sort of latency issue with IE.  Has anyone else experienced this before?

[ch_123]

Reading through your post, the problem sticks out like a sore thumb to me -



My half-joke, half-serious-point aside... is it only this keyboard, or are others affected?

[itlnstln]

On a more serious note, I have never experienced anything like this (I use IE8 and all the past revisions), but it does sound like an IE problem.  Do you get the same results in, say, Firefox (or some other browser)?  Have you tried another keyboard.

[ch_123]

Some people have found malware to be the culprit.

By malware, do you mean Internet Explorer, or the streams of crap that said software lets through on to your PC?

[Special K]

It doesn't sound you are the only one.

And according to this it's still happening only in IE textboxes.  Some people have found malware to be the culprit.

Wow, I just did a general search on google and found out that many people are having this issue.  The bad part is that the culprit seems to be certain combinations of software, so there isn't a universal fix aside from changing browsers.

I seriously doubt it's malware, as I have been running Norton Internet Security for over a year now.  It was rated the top IS program by a couple of review sites.

I just tried typing on my M10 and experienced the same dropped keypress issues, so I know it's not a hardware problem.  The most helpful link I found so far was this one:

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19293728/19549880.aspx

I am currently running IE8 that I launched from a command prompt and am not having any issues with dropped keypresses.

[ch_123]

I seriously doubt it's malware, as I have been running Norton Internet Security for over a year now.  It was rated the top IS program by a couple of review sites.

Is NIS still the bloatware nonsense it was when I used it a few years ago? Is it possible that it is one of the pieces of software that could cause it?

Besides, who pays for AV these days when MS gives away one of the best ones for free...

Apologies if I sound like a douche, it's just that I've seen too many machines ruined by this sort of ****.

[itlnstln]

I would drop that Norton and get MS Security Essentials.  Better protection, smaller footprint, less intrusive.  Wins all the way around.

[itlnstln]

I see ch_123 and I are on the same page on the Norton.

[Special K]

Is NIS still the bloatware nonsense it was when I used it a few years ago? Is it possible that it is one of the pieces of software that could cause it?

Besides, who pays for AV these days when MS gives away one of the best ones for free...

Apologies if I sound like a douche, it's just that I've seen too many machines ruined by this sort of ****.

The review specifically said that versions 2010 and on were much less bloated than previous ones, so I decided to give it a try based on that.  So far I haven't had any specific complaints against it.

The keyboard problem seems to be tied to IE addons (flash and shockwave specifcally), but I need to run some more tests to verify that.

[ch_123]

I'd still be skeptical about Norton, I've seen some of those big name AVs ruin even the best spec'd of machines. I'd try uninstalling it, and putting on MSE in it's place.

Speaking of malware protection, get rid of IE and use Opera, Firefox or Chrome instead.

[itlnstln]

That's weird (not suprising, though) that plugins cause that problem. I have never seen it, personally, but everyone's setup is different.

[itlnstln]

Yeah, but it might not be MS's fault. Adobe has been known to make some crappy software in their own right.
 
I think there has to be something else going on, too.  I have had the same plugins, OSs, versions of IE, etc., and I have not had any of these problems.  That would lead me to think that there is something more going on here; perhaps something even hardware/driver-related, too.

[ch_123]

Hey, this is from the same people who are responsible for this.

[Mr.6502]

Is there any chance its tied to specific websites?  If a site is using javascript to scan through what you type as you type it, I could see that bogging down IE tremendously and causing problems.

Give IE7 or IE8 a big enough block of text and run some string functions on it and you can still grind the browser to a complete halt for a couple of seconds.

[InSanCen]

Reading through your post, the problem sticks out like a sore thumb to me -

Show Image

I'll jump on the IE bashing bandwagon.

Chrome or Firefox.

and Norton AV? Ugh... if I boot into windows, ESET's NOD works just great, and doesn't bog my system down (second on my list after stopping virii/malware). It has got better though... 360 was a giant bloated failure on almost every level. Selling that (A requirement of my job at the time, much as I hated it) to even the average joe was hard.

[Special K]

The culprit turned out to be an IE8 plugin installed by Norton Internet Security 2010.  Here is how I found the problem:


1. I recorded a macro of me correctly typing "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." - this ensured that any errors made were not made by me.

2. I ran the macro in the gmail compose window and let it loop 50 times continuously - this allowed me to see that random characters were not registering.

3. After doing some google searching and finding others with this same problem, I found out that calling IE8 from a command prompt disables most plugins.  When I ran IE8 in this manner, all keypresses registered correctly.

4. I then ran IE8 with all plugins enabled and then started disabling them 1 by 1, running the macro after disabling each plugin.  Eventually I found out that the culprit was the Symantec NCO BHO plugin.

The NCO BHO plugin basically analyzes the results returned by search engines and displays an icon next to them indicating if the site is safe or contains a trojan, virus, etc.  For now I have disabled the feature, but it would be nice if Symantec could fix it since I've already paid for NIS 2010.

Now that I think about it, I did start noticing the dropped keypresses problem right around the time I upgraded from NIS 2009 to 2010, but with as many changes as I make to my PC, it would have been impossible for me to have made the connection at that time.

[ch_123]

A classic example of Newton's Second Principle of Fail - when two fail packages of software are combined, the end user experiences an exponentially greater quantity of fail than the sum of the two software packages by themselves.

[clickclack]

Hey now! I must say I have learned a bunch in this thread! I might even get that antivirus listed earlier, since I don't have one yet on my new machine.

[DreymaR]

it would be niced if Symantec could fix it since I've already paid for NIS 2010.

I think the best way of getting maximum return for your investment would be:
1) Uninstall NIS
2) Install MS Security Essentials



On a side note, my wife had a laptop computer that had become so slow that we were almost ready to chuck it out now. Yesterday I installed Google Chrome on it and we were both blown away. I'm not talking about a mere speed increase, but a complete transition from useless to decent computer! I also removed the HP Wireless Assistant and some Apple Upgrade malware, but it was the Chrome that made all the difference I think.

[whininggit]

I have run the trials of both Norton 2009 and 2010 and haven't encountered any performance issues. I agree that earlier versions were horrendous, but 2009 and 2010 are in a different league performance-wise.

I run MSE on my systems though, purely for cost reasons of licencing AV for several systems. Performance was not a deciding factor at all (other than MSE and Norton performed equally well).

[Rajagra]

Glad to see the culprit has been found. I do sometimes get a similar problem with some background application stealing focus momentarily, or even handing focus to the desktop rather than return it to the original application. It's just one of the joys of using Windows. Not much you can do about it other than be ruthless about what you install/allow to run.

[elbowglue]

A classic example of Newton's Second Principle of Fail - when two fail packages of software are combined, the end user experiences an exponentially greater quantity of fail than the sum of the two software packages by themselves.

Well played my friend, well played.
Funny stuff

[Rajagra]

But I think the keypresses are always buffered in that case, not dropped.  Dropping is not good.

No, I lose keystrokes. They are sent to whatever app has focus when I hit the key. Very annoying. Especially before you work out what's happening.

[Special K]

I posted the issue on Symantec's support forum and one of their employees was able to reproduce the issue.  He said the bug would be submitted into the database of fixes to make for future updates.

[itlnstln]

I bet Peter Norton will even fix it himself.

[mp29k]

I use avira, seems to work very well... updates every time I login, and I disabled the nag screen telling me to pay for it, so it is not even annoying!

[microsoft windows]

I use CSAV due to its compatibility with all computers.

[Special K]

A classic example of Newton's Second Principle of Fail - when two fail packages of software are combined, the end user experiences an exponentially greater quantity of fail than the sum of the two software packages by themselves.

:lol:

[kishy]

I use Comodo Internet Security, a combo AV and firewall.

I really like the flexibility of the firewall and was using it + AVG Free for a while, but then AVG free started really sucking (I think it was 7.something when it became a monster resource hog) so I looked elsewhere...seemed to make sense to use a combined application to reduce my resource usage and have a common interface for security-related stuff.

I've thrown a lot of stuff at this AV and it's caught everything so far...if anything it throws a lot of false positives, but that's OK with me...typically if I'm working with a dangerous file I know what I'm doing, the AV is only really present so that nothing automated can do damage while I'm not at my computer.

[ricercar]

I use CSAV due to its compatibility with all computers.

Mega Cool. I always wanted to surf on my Commodore 64!

[microsoft windows]

CSAV is an acronym for "Common Sense Anti-Virus". I've used it for years and never gotten any viruses. Follow these steps to  install it:
1. Don't learn how to get  "ripped" in two weeks.
2. Don't do that free credit report.
3. Don't accept your free Ipod for being the 1,000,000th visitor to that same site three times.
4. You  all can live without that one rule to a flat stomach.
5. Don't do that virus scan that keeps popping up in your browser window with window borders from a different operating system.

You all'll be surprised how well this software works!

[Special K]

2. Don't do that free credit report.

The only exception is:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

That's the only legit place to get your free 3 credit reports every 12 months without having to sign up for any other obligations.

[ch_123]

I bet Peter Norton will even fix it himself.

Or at least fold his arms and look stern until an Indian subcontractor does it for him.

I use avira, seems to work very well... updates every time I login, and I disabled the nag screen telling me to pay for it, so it is not even annoying!

I flirted with Avira for a brief while. Couldn't get rid of the nag screens, found its update mechanism to be unreliable, and then found out that MSE was good, and indeed, could detect more viruses than it. The flirtation was brief.