The keyboard symptoms are indeed the same (I do not have backlight issues).
The problem is definitely specific to some dell hardware. I have many laptops and computers running the same operating system and none of those has/had those problems.
The problem is due to a combination of two factors
-something specific about the keyboard-related hardware in this laptop generates keypress/release events that are unusual (compared to other hardware) in some way (order of keypress/release events and timing)
-some bug in Xorg reacts badly to this unusual problem
I seem to remember that the issue is that keypress/release events occur in an unusual order: something like : key-press-H key-press-J key-release-H key-release-J. It is probably more complex than that. I guess timing plays a role.
The problem is quite annoying. It does not occur on a the dell XPS I bought more recently.
In my experience the dell hardware is usually quite nice, but it always has one specific problem that seems impossible to fix. In the Dell laptops I bought I experienced:
-continuously running fans
-auto-disconnecting ethernet
-the keyboard issue
-the touchpad issue.
In addition, you have to be very careful when you order, because offers in the context of a framework agreement are too often more expensive than what you can find on the web.
Olivier Berger
1 Message
0
September 23rd, 2014 06:00
Would this by any chance be what is reported in this forum : http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19593360/20679876# ?
wphilips123
2 Posts
0
September 27th, 2014 09:00
The keyboard symptoms are indeed the same (I do not have backlight issues).
The problem is definitely specific to some dell hardware. I have many laptops and computers running the same operating system and none of those has/had those problems.
The problem is due to a combination of two factors
-something specific about the keyboard-related hardware in this laptop generates keypress/release
events that are unusual (compared to other hardware) in some way (order of keypress/release events and timing)
-some bug in Xorg reacts badly to this unusual problem
I seem to remember that the issue is that keypress/release events occur in an unusual order:
something like : key-press-H key-press-J key-release-H key-release-J. It is probably more complex than that. I guess timing plays a role.
The problem is quite annoying. It does not occur on a the dell XPS I bought more recently.
In my experience the dell hardware is usually quite nice, but it always has one specific problem that seems impossible to fix. In the Dell laptops I bought I experienced:
-continuously running fans
-auto-disconnecting ethernet
-the keyboard issue
-the touchpad issue.
In addition, you have to be very careful when you order, because offers in the context of a framework agreement are too often more expensive than what you can find on the web.