Vaio SZ5 Keyboard

[matthewhambly]

Hi,

I have just bought a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ5VWN/X.

When I try to play certain games that require more than 2 keys to be pressed on the keyboard, sometimes any keys pressed after the first 2 do not register, but other times they do.

For example, pressing up & right and then pressing 's', works, but pressing right & down and then s, the s does not register.

Other key combinations do work when pressing the down key and another arrow, and some key combinations don't work when pressing the up key and another combination.

Is this just a problem of the keyboard (being crap - which I hope it isn't on a £1800 laptop), or is there a fix for this?

Thanks,

Matt.

[matthewhambly]

I have done some more tests holding 2 arrow keys then going accross q-], then a-#, then \-/ (the main 3 keyboard rows):

When pressing "Up"+"Right" these keys work:

ryup[
ask#
zxcvbnm,./

When pressing "Right"+"Down" these keys work:

qertyuiop
g;
zxvnm,

When pressing "Down"+"Left" these keys work:

qwertyuiop[]
dfghjl;'
\

When pressing "Up"+"Left" these keys work:

wryup[
asdfhjkl'#
\cb./

[MattWilson]

I know its not a complete solution but you could change the key presses for the game to the ones that do work.

Keyboards are really designed for typing. ie. one key press at a time.

You could invest in a USB keyboard for when you are playing games?

[matthewhambly]

Keyboards arn't designed for typing alone, they are designed as a computer input device.

I see no reason why these keys shouldn't work when arrows are pressed unless they are using some really old matrix design keyboard.

A USB keyboard won't be much use when I am away from home (which is the only time i'll need it) as it isn't very portable! Not much use on the train!

Thanks for the help, I guess there is no solution, I was hoping after spending £1800 not to have any big gripes and I have one within hours of opening the box. Should have gone with a Dell...

Cheers,

Matt.

[MattWilson]

Well each key on a keyboard is represented by an ASCII code which is sent the input port of the CPU in Binary form. This means that pressing one key sends 8 or more 1's and 0's to the processor to be determined as letters on your screen. When you hold lots of keys down more code has to be sent every second to show the keys being pressed and obviously sometimes not all the code can be transfered.

For instance to press the key combination UP,LEFT,A:

00011110(UP), 00011101(LEFT), 01100001(A)

[matthewhambly]

I don't quite see how that has any effect today?

Maybe 20 years ago but not now. My other PC has a PS/2 keyboard and I can press upwards of 5 keys with no problems at all.

I presume the keyboard in this laptop is connected to a PS/2 port, in which case that shouldn't be a problem, and a Core 2 Duo, so I reckon that can handle 3 keys at once too.

Sorry I'm not getting angry at you, I'm just a little irritated with Sony.

[jumpsuit]

It may not be relevant but may I ask what Games you are having problms with?

[matthewhambly]

I think its any games that require arrow keys and letter keys at the same time, in this case Fifa 07.

But those tests above were done in Notepad, so its a keyboard problem, not a game problem.

[jumpsuit]

Fair enough.

[invisible007]

Did you solve the problem with the keyboard? cause i have the same on Fifa 11