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[Random832]

Some people with laptops have noticed (I'd certainly heard of the bug before it happened to me) that the arrow keys or the numeric keypad keys sometimes get "stuck" and have to be cleared by pressing the same key again. I have discovered the reason this happens. When you press down on a key and then release or press the Fn key before releasing the key, the "key release" message somehow gets scrambled and DF does not register it. The key does stop repeating in normal applications, since key repeats are registered by sending more key press events, but DF apparently acts differently, handling its own key repeats (and thus continuing to do so after the missed key release event). Switching between Fn numpad +-*/ and regular other keys is the most likely time for this to happen.

Workaround: either be careful about when you press or release the Fn key to operate the numeric keypad, change your mappings for the +-*/ functions, or get a real numeric keypad.

Fix: change the way repeating keys are handled in DF, somehow - without knowing more about how input is handled I can't really say anything more.

[Untelligent]

To hell with the [Fn] key. I remapped all the numpad-exclusive keys to easier-to-push keys long ago.

[Random832]

To hell with the [Fn] key. I remapped all the numpad-exclusive keys to easier-to-push keys long ago.

Meh, it's still a bug.

But anyway, what are your mappings? There's a scarcity of unused keys on a laptop keyboard.

[Untelligent]

The only numpad-exclusive buttons I can think of offhand were the secondary list scroll keys (+, -, *, /), which I remapped to the (-, =, _, +) keys to the right of the number row.

I also remapped (3) and (9) to shift+ the up and down arrow keys, so I don't have to use the number row to page through the primary lists.

[winner]

I remapped small up and down to - and =
and page up and down to [ and ]

[kcwong]

It's not just laptops. I have it from time to time on my desktop.

For me, the reason seems to be pressing too many buttons at once. Usually this happens when I was designating an area of constructions or for mining. The combination of Shift, arrow keys, and Enter will lock the game into thinking one of the arrow button is pressed.

Once that happens, there's no way to unlock it, not even by reproducing the key-released events. I'll have to press Esc to pull up the main menu, press Enter at the right time to save the game. Then I need to restart DF.

[Granite26]

I am currently seeing this issue on my laptop.

It has a full number pad ( I <3 my laptop), but using it in conjunction with the shift key is causing sticky keys.

It makes the game crazy annoying, because I can't fast scroll.

[smjjames]

You can turn off the sticky key thing that activates after a number of presses of the shift button, if that is what's happening for you.

I get this problem when I accidentially hit Fn instead of ctrl and pressing the up or down arrow keys which adjust brightness. I think I somehow got it out of the arrow key lock once without having to restart the game, but no idea how I did it. It's solveable by saving, quitting, then restarting anyhow.

[Granite26]

Interesting point, I'll check the Sticky Keys  setting in Accessibility when I get home.

That said, I don't think it's the case, unless Vista has some magical 'turn it on without alerting you when your in an app, but don't warn you are keep it on after you restart the game' setting.

Quitting the game and restarting does indeed resolve the issue, but that doesn't help, because I still can't use the shift key to fast scroll

[Sphalerite]

I have this same issue on an Asus laptop running Vista.  Holding down an arrow key and then pressing shift to fast-scroll usually results in the scrolling continuing even after the arrow key has been released.  Sometimes quitting out to the main menu solves the problem, sometimes I actually need to completely quit DF and restart.

[smjjames]

I use the shift key for fast scroll all the time and haven't had any problems with it. Maybe it's related to some setting? I'm using a laptop, if I didn't mention it or it wasn't obvious from my previous post.

Since the ctrl key, which I use for secondary scrolling, is right next to the function key, that's usually what causes the problem when I see it.

[Granite26]

WTF!?!?!!? My computer is @#$@#$# talking to me!!!!

[smjjames]

?

You may have turned on the text to speech option in accessability options by accident.

[Granite26]

Nah, I went into the accessibility section on Vista, and it's narrated.  Creeped me RIGHT out...

I turned off all accessibility options.  If I hold shift and then the numpad key, it scrolls like there's no shift.  If I hold the numpad key and tap shift, each tap corresponds to a 10 space jump.  If I do this slowly (only jump 2-3 times, release all keys then start again), I have no problems.  OTOH, if I press the shift continually, the key sticks.

That sounds suspiciously like the five keypress to turn on sticky thing, but doesn't seem to be.  There's no windows notification (sound or otherwise) that something is turning on, and the behaviour is limited to DF.

[smjjames]

What about just using the arrow keys? The usual ones, not the numpad ones.