D620 - Mouse Keyboard stuck when docked

Question

I have noticed this happened at least 3 times to me and at least once to it's twin sister down the hall. You will be working and all of a sudden the keys you type are all uppercase and it acts like you are holding down the shift key. Repeatedly hitting cap lock and such make no difference in the typing output.

Generally the only way to fix it is to reboot the system. The problem has only been observed when the laptop is docked and you are using an external keyboard plugged into the docking station. The keys on the keyboard are not stuck and the cap lock light is off (you can turn it off and on by hitting the key, but has on effect on the typing output).

What do you thick could be causing this?

Thanks

Dell Latitude D620
Bios A02
Core Duo T2600 @ 2.16ghz
2048 MB DDR2 667mhz
NVidia Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache
100gb 5400rpm HD
Philips SDVD8820 DVD+/-RW Combo
SigmaTel C-Major HD Audio
Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG 802.11a/b/g
TrueMobile 350 Bluetooth
Windows XP SP2

Marshall_600m · Answer

I don't know if this is much help but... at least you aren't crazy. It's happened to me, too :(

For me, it used to happen on my Dell 600m. I can't remember for the life of me which software caused it, but sometimes, when I would have to enter user password, it wouldn't be recognized. The only way I could type a password such as this:

FooBar

was to type in:

fOObAR

And once I was in, all typing was like this. If I remember how I solved it, I'll come back and edit the post.

slowecsl · Answer

Thanks, I hope you remember, even so I'm glad to know I'm not crazy at least.

A new one happened today. Restarted my system and when I got to the login screen, i couldn't type anything into any of the field such as password or username. I could use TAB and such and if I hit "s" it would ask to shut down the system, so it was recognizing the keyboard.

I finally had to shut the system down and unplug the keyboard and replug it in and so far so good. Really weird though. Just a thought, is your keyboard a PS2 connector or USB? Mine's PS2.

style26062 · Answer

Same problem here with multiple D620 systems. We have about ten of these laptops and aprox half have this issue. We've seen the problem both docked and undocked. Our keyboards are USB, but since it's happened undocked i don't think that matters.

Dell replaced several of our D620s with new machines. We tried moving the old hard drives to the new PC and the problem still exists. This leads me to believe it's either a bios issue, or a driver. Most of ours came with version A01 of the bios. THey're already up to A05 so i'm hopeful that will fix it.

I'll post a solution if we find one.

dowsha · Answer

Hi,   I work in a Company in Brussel, & we bought a couple of D620 in June 2006. Since, November, i put these d620 in production.  I have 2 users, that report me same problem, with shift key stuck. When they click with the mouse, there is a selection, as when the SHIFT key is hold. And when they type, the text is in uppercase. The D620 are docked & with external keyboard. I didn't tried undocked & without external keyboard, but i have updated the Bios from A05 to A07, i will see if it this fix.   If anyone, have a workaround, please let us know ;)   Dow.

R0458 · Answer

I have the same problem on several machines, not all.

I contacted DELL for information about this problem. They have no solution for it. I told them there is a discussion about it on their forum (this tread). They told me they would look at it.

What I already did on request of the DELL technician:

Update the BIOS from A05 to A07 --> not OK

Changing the port replicator --> not OK

Changing the keyboard with a DELL keyboard --> not OK

Turning of the rotation (screen settings) --> not OK

Removed the hardware profile --> not OK

They called me several times to check if the problem was solved after each test.

So it seems they are investigating this problem.

I think it would be a good thing if everyone makes a call with DELL about this problem to push them a little to find a good solution.

We tested the laptop with a USB keyboard. This seems to solve the problem.

This is not a good solution, but it's a good workaround.

I told the helpdesk that this solves the problem, but now we need to buy 15 USB keyboards. The person from the DELL helpdesk is now asking his boss how to solve this problem.

Message Edited by R0458 on 03-01-2007 04:41 AM

tiamat_the_red · Answer

I have this problem fairly frequently.  I find that if I hit shift 5 times in rapid sucession, it brings up the 'sticky keys' dialog box and if I cancel out of that, the problem is fixed.  It keeps reoccuring, though.

GreyMack · Answer

It was happening on my I8100/XP (undocked with no external keyboard/mouse) everytime I would pause with the shift key inadvertently held down, but cancelling out of the sticky keys popup didn't fix it so I always had to reboot.

I don't recall resolving the issue, but I can't force it to happen today. Maybe I disabled it in Accessibility Options?

http://www.jesush.com/index.php?p=731

GM

Pollepap · Answer

Any news on this issue yet ?

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D620 - Mouse Keyboard stuck when docked

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