Mouse pad and joystick share I/O with keyboard?

Jan 14, 2020
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I have an older Dell E6430 laptop for low-resolution, low-settings gaming on the go. Last night I tried using the keyboard and mouse nub at the same. I discovered much to my dismay that when running forward in a game using a keyboard command ("W") I cannot steer left/right with the mouse joystick. Once I let go of the key I can use the mouse. The opposite is true too. If I start swinging the mouse then I cannot use the keyboard. It seems like the devices share one I/O port and only one device can be active at a time.

Do dedicated gaming laptops show the same behavior or is this behavior particular to my specific non-gaming laptop?

-=- Boris
 
Does this help

  • Go to the Control Panel (large icon view) then > click Mouse > Device Settings tab > Settings. Under the Synaptics Settings, go to Pointing > Sensitivity > Palmcheck and set the palm sensitivity to the minimum and test the game.
 
Jan 14, 2020
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Does this help

  • Go to the Control Panel (large icon view) then > click Mouse > Device Settings tab > Settings. Under the Synaptics Settings, go to Pointing > Sensitivity > Palmcheck and set the palm sensitivity to the minimum and test the game.

Nope. :( I tried another experiment. Opened up Notepad and held down a key. The mouse cursor disappeared. I wiggled the mouse. When I let go of the key the cursor was where I last left it.

Would a gaming laptop do the same?

Have you had a look in the BIOS?

I didn’t think of this until your post. There was nothing in there about mice, keyboards, or other similar input devices.

I connected a USB mouse to one of the free ports and I can use the mouse and keyboard concurrently.

— Boris
 
Jan 30, 2020
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I just stumbled across this:-

USBDeview is a small utility that lists all USB devices that currently connected to your computer, as well as all USB devices that you previously used.
For each USB device, extended information is displayed: Device name/description, device type, serial number (for mass storage devices), the date/time that device was added, VendorID, ProductID, and more...
USBDeview also allows you to uninstall USB devices that you previously used, disconnect USB devices that are currently connected to your computer, as well as to disable and enable USB devices.
You can also use USBDeview on a remote computer, as long as you login to that computer with admin user.

 
Jan 14, 2020
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Thanks! I have been super busy lately with guests and haven't had time to play around with this. Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to poke around in my registry.

-=- Boris
 

James

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Jan 13, 2020
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One of the common issues with cheap keyboards, and why people might opt for expensive mechanical keyboards, is a thing called "n-key rollover." Cheap keyboards (see: membrane) limit the number of signals they can send to like 2-3 at most, so you wouldn't be able to for example, hold down a crouch button and move diagonally by pressing W and A at the same time.

N-key rollover means a keyboard can send an individual signal for every key, so you can't overload it with keypresses causing any to be skipped. This can be very important in MOBA type games where you have to rapidly queue a succession of abilities in a second and a half to get the combo to go right.

A cheap laptop with a thumb mouse might not let you send multiple signals at once.
 

spvtnik1

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Jan 13, 2020
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One of the common issues with cheap keyboards, and why people might opt for expensive mechanical keyboards, is a thing called "n-key rollover." Cheap keyboards (see: membrane) limit the number of signals they can send to like 2-3 at most, so you wouldn't be able to for example, hold down a crouch button and move diagonally by pressing W and A at the same time.

N-key rollover means a keyboard can send an individual signal for every key, so you can't overload it with keypresses causing any to be skipped. This can be very important in MOBA type games where you have to rapidly queue a succession of abilities in a second and a half to get the combo to go right.

A cheap laptop with a thumb mouse might not let you send multiple signals at once.

It’s still application dependent. For example, RDR2 has like a two-key limit on concurrent inputs. :C
 

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