Is my new keyboard a lemon, or is there something I'm missing?
December 6, 2021 12:09 PM   Subscribe

I just bought a new Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop kit. The mouse and most of the keyboard works just fine, but the backspace key doesn't work. What gives?

After many enjoyable years of use, the mouse of my MS Sculpt wireless set broke. I just came home with a full kit (mouse, keyboard, number pad, dongle) and am chagrined to find that the backspace key doesn't work.

I updated the drivers, restarted the computer, took the dongle out and replaced it, and none of those things help. The rest of the keys on the keyboard (letters, numbers, control, shift, caps lock, delete) all function normally. I'm using this on my work laptop, a Lenovo T480 running Windows 10. Not seeing anything weird or diagnostically helpful when I poke around the device and keyboard info.

Googling and scouring the MS site turn up info about mapping one of the split space keys to backspace, but I don't want to change that functionality.

So, hive mind--is this just a lemon? Is there something I'm missing?
posted by Sublimity to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)
 
It's possible that it's just a lemon, but I would try (very carefully!) prying off the keycap and blowing out any debris or dust that may have gotten underneath it.
posted by mbrubeck at 12:37 PM on December 6, 2021


If it's new, what keyboard manufacturer would ship a standard keyboard with a non functioning backspace key until you got the setup just so? I'm mean, I'm playing the odds here but my bet is that it would work out of the box until you reprogrammed it, not fail to work until you programmed it.

I think you have a dud and I would suggest you return it for replacement rather than putting in any more effort. I think you've done far more than is called for, and no doubt the shop will happily replace it without any explanation beyond 'one key doesn't work'.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 1:42 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Sure. I just wanted to see if there was some weird curveball that I might have missed in all the googling, like a key sequence that would disable it that I may have inadvertently hit.
posted by Sublimity at 2:38 PM on December 6, 2021


For what it's worth, I have that keyboard and my backspace key works. I don't remember doing any special trick to make it work.

I know there is a way to make one of the sides of the spacebar into a backspace key, because I accidentally enabled that once and wow, I really hated it. So I turned it back off. Even then, the regular backspace still backspaced; this was just additional.

I lean toward "lemon".

Editing to add that the way to change one side (left) to a backspace is to hold down both sides of the spacebar together for 3-5 seconds to enable; then to disable, do it again.
posted by invincible summer at 3:06 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


That sounds like a manufacturing defect to me, barring some utterly bizarre configuration issue (incredibly unlikely). If the backspace key of any other keyboard connected to the computer works, then I'd rule out even that unlikely scenario.
posted by Aleyn at 3:54 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks, all. I pretty much never set up computer peripherals and this was just weird. I did exchange it and the replacement set is working perfectly. Carry on!
posted by Sublimity at 4:09 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


FWIW I have twice had Sculpts where one key (different each time) didn't work or stopped working. Great keyboard, but it's kind of ridiculous. Also you may find one day that your keyboard stops registering keystrokes altogether, even after you replace the batteries and make sure the receiver is seated properly. Should that happen, make sure none of the function keys, especially F3, is stuck in the down position. Because that is also a thing that happens.
posted by trig at 5:40 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


Never had a problem with my Sculpt keyboards until they stopped working altogether, which is always a sad day (and has happened too often).
posted by lhauser at 7:00 PM on December 6, 2021


Just replace / exchange it. You got a dud. No way to know WHY it failed without taking it apart, which will void the warranty if any. I think MS has a hardware support section you can contact.

Reading the support forums suggests that some of the OTHER keys may be stuck in a downward position. I'd try something like that Keyboard Tester website and see what it says about your keyboard.
posted by kschang at 7:58 PM on December 6, 2021


This post inspired me to try to fix the nonfunctioning key I have on my current Sculpt. In the process of looking up if there's anything tricky about removing the keycaps, I came across this video, in which someone's nonfunctioning backspace key was caused by keys on the separate numeric keypad being depressed (he'd had something sitting on top of the numpad). No idea if that was the issue for you, but putting it here just in case it's ever helpful to someone else.

(Also for future reference: nothing really tricky about removing the keycaps. This video shows what's inside, and I used a credit card to pry off the cap and a toothpick to clean and to click the frames back in place. There turned out to be a weird minuscule twig or something lodged inside there, along with a lot of dust. As far as I can tell, the key is working properly now!)
posted by trig at 12:16 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


I had two of those and both were lemons.
posted by james33 at 4:49 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


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