Serious problem with keyboard response lag time

Question

This problem is occuring with my brand-new Inspiron 1400 laptop, Windows XP Home Edition.   When using either the laptop's keyboard or the ViewSonic USB keyboard that I have, in any software I try, there are delays between the time that I press keys on the keyboard and the time the letters appear on the monitor.  These delays do not happen with every character I type, but they occur every few seconds and last for several seconds before clearing up again, then repeat.  This always happens whenever I use either keyboard, in any software.  The system has 2 GB of RAM and surely should be able to handle my keyboard input, my old Dell Inspiron with only 768 MB of RAM never had this problem.   This is extremely annoying and makes keyboarding very frustrating and difficult.  The problem appears as is there is a keyboard-entry buffer that is filling up or overloading, but the problem occurs no matter at what rate I type in the letters.  This happens even with only one application open (in fact, the problem is happening as I type in these words and I have nothing open on my system except Internet Explorer at your website).The problem persists after system rebooting.  I ran Dell Diagnostics, both the PSA and the System Diagnostics - Extended Test. These diagnostics did not return any errors, neither on the memory nor on the keyboard nor anywhere else on the system.   Is this machine defective and do I need to replace it under the 30-day warranty, or is there a simple fix for this?  I can't find anything in the FAQ or Knowledge Base on this problem, and none of the new drivers for the 1400 seem to address this issue.    This is utterly unacceptable, as I use the computer mainly for text work, and I will ask for a refund and buy a product from another company if this can't be fixed PDQ.

Bijou38 · Answer

I finally got through on the phone to a Dell tech support guy who knew what the problem is. It's a memory conflict with a DVD-playback software utility that isn't really essential to my system. Disabling that utility cleared the problem. Go to Start>Run>msconfig, go to the Startup tab, scroll down to a line that says "PCM Service" and disable the useless thing. Click apply ok reboot and the keyboard works like it's supposed to.

Yet another example of how complex Windows systems can create truly bizarre and counter-intuitive problems. Who'd have thought that a DVD-playback utility would conflict with the keyboards (both integrated and USB) on the system? Oh well at least the keyboards work OK and we don't need a new computer, I wish all software problems could be fixed so easily (once someone else has done the agonizing work of disabling everything in Startup and bringing everything back one at a time until you isolate the problem, what a drag if you're the one who has to do it ....)

km12724 · Answer

Thanks for the fix.  It also works for the VOSTRO 1700 Laptop.  I was about ready to throw the thing out to the trash as I couldn't get thru to Dell.  Sorry for the 'tag'.  Newbie here!

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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