Tab key not working

At home I have XP (English) and am running a software package whereby I've written various windows - nothing special. If I bring up a specific window at home and use the tab key, focus shifts from (input) field to field as expected. Nothing unexpected there.

Here at work, I'm running XP Pro (swedish). If I run the same program and s/w, as soon as I press the tab key, I get a beep and nothing happens.

Can anyone suggest an explanation ?

 

simple as it sounds check to see if the keyboard plug is pushed in tightly.
Reboot.
Try another keyboard do diagnose if it is a hardware issue.

 

Thanks for the suggestions

Trouble is, it seems to be only the specific s/w that is failing with the tab key at work.

For example, select control panel, display, screen saver tab and I can tab through all the controls with no problems.

 

Hi, misi01. Welcome to Windows BBS!

I have 3 questions that might help us go in the right direction.

1. What is the brand name and version of your specific software package on your work computer?
2. Have you verified the version of that software package is the latest version available from the vendor's web site installed on both computers?
   • If the versions are different, please let us know which version is on which computer.
3. On your work computer, does Event Viewer display any errors that are logged at the times you hear the "beep and nothing happens "?
   • If so, please paste the contents of those error event properties into your next reply.
   • If you can translate the Swedish to English for us, that would be helpful too (though it is probably not absolutely necessary).

Instructions About How to Access and Use "Event Viewer ":

• Click Start.
• Right-click My Computer.
• Select "Manage" to open the "Computer Management" window.
  (Event Viewer will be displayed under the "System Tools" directory item.)
• Expand "Event Viewer" and then select "Application ", "Security ", and "System" to view the logs.
• Look for "error" events that occurred around the time your problem occurred. These events will be displayed as icons with either a white X on red background or a black exclamation point on yellow background. In the security section of Event Viewer, events of possible concern are ones that display a padlock icon instead of a key icon.
• Double-click on an individual event to open the "Event Properties" window which shows details about the event.
  • You can use the up/down arrow buttons in the "Event Properties" window to move your focus to other events in the list.
  • Use the button below the up/down arrows to copy the details for an event to your clipboard for pasting elsewhere.
  • Click on the "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp" link in the "Event Properties" window to view more information from Microsoft about the event.

EDIT: If a forum moderator would please edit the thread title include the name/version of the software package (once we know what it is, of course), that will help maximize exposure of misi01's issue to those familiar with the software package. Thanks.

 

S/w and event handler

First of all, thank you for the detailed reply to my problem - I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to try and help.

The name of the s/w is Reginald Rexx - levels are identical at home and at work. Since the code is freeware, I'm assuming the service level isn't really relevant (can include it if required).

I have posted/sent an example of the "failing" code to the guy responsible for developing Reginald but he, (like me at home), couldn't reproduce it either.

Reviewing event handler - unfortunately, there are no entries at all.

As an example of the weird way things are behaving, here's a scenario. Start a program - focus is placed in first input field. I can tab through 3 fields. Trying to tab to the 4th field gives the beep and nothing happens. Now place focus in the first field again, try tabbing and ..... immediate beep with nothing happening. Trying different variations on this almost gives me the impression that as soon as the tab key fails (with the beep), then tabbing is disallowed for the remainder of that program's session.

I made a mistake earlier in saying that the PC at work is XP Pro Swedish - its' actually English. So that seems to leave the OS as the only difference.

 

Thanks for the additional info.

I'm sorry I am not familiar with Reginald REXX so I'm afraid I can't be much further help.

Anyway, I Googled "Reginald Rexx" tab and via those search results found this Google cached page where "misi01" (you?) posted a related query. I provided the link to the cached page here in case it might be helpful for someone here to help you.

I assume you have tried the "Try the newest REXX GUI." suggestion "Jeff Glatt" posted:

However, there apparently is no follow-up post by you on that cached page.

 

Thanks again

In my naivety, I posted here thinking that, maybe there was some hidden Windows' option somewhere that had something to do with it. (For example, I have turned off the "Show windows contents while dragging" effect in Display).

I can understand Jeff (Reginald author) - it's a bit difficult to correct something if you can't reproduce it on your own machine.

The cached append was in request to a change in Reginald - before, it wasn't honoring the tab key at all. Jeff then changed Reginald and now it's (sort of) working, depending on your machine.

As I mentioned in my previous append - it seems strange that Tab works for some controls, and then as soon as it doesn't work for one, it doesn't work for any in that window.

Anyway - thanks again for taking an interest. Appreciate it

 

Excellent point

PC at home is laptop - that at work isn't

Is there a way of capturing the hex values for keystrokes so I could see if there was a difference between the 2 ???

(HOWEVER - note my point about tabbing (partially) working at work until a tab key press results in the beep sound, after which NO tabbing works, even from fields that just previously allowed it)

 

Pete brought up an interesting idea to branch off from. We might be barking up the wrong tree but the following ideas may be relatively easy to investigate.

misi01, what manufacturer brand and model number is your work keyboard?

Perhaps you could try a different brand keyboard on the desktop (work) computer anyway and see if the problem continues. (Computer should probably be off while switching keyboards.)

Perhaps the desktop computer has associated (manufacturer supplied) keyboard software installed that is buggy. (For example, Logitech often ships "SetPoint" or "iTouch" software on CD along with their keyboards.)

If you have similar software for your work keyboard installed on your work computer, perhaps one of the following suggestions will help pinpoint the cause of your issue.

• Adjust the keyboard software settings via the keyboard software's control panel.
  (The cause of your problem might an enabled on-screen caps-lock notification setting or some other seemingly innocuous setting.)
• Download and install a keyboard software update (or maybe a keyboard driver update) from the manufacturer's web site.
• Disable the keyboard software from starting up when the computer is booted and then reboot/test. (I would try this first.)
• Uninstall the keyboard software (if you have a backup of the software handy in case you want to reinstall later) and then reboot/test.

 

I thought of a couple other angles regarding switching keyboards.

Is your work keyboard PS/2, corded USB, or wireless? If it's one of the latter, then perhaps a PS/2 keyboard would be logical to try instead. (Computer should be off while attaching.)

If the keyboard is a USB keyboard was shipped with a USB > PS/2 adapter, then perhaps you should try attaching the adapter and using the PS/2 port on the computer. (Computer should be off while attaching.)

 

Tab key - the continuing story

Again - appreciate your efforts.

Keyboard at work is the supplied HP KU-0316 with Swedish layout. To my knowledge there is no s/w associated with the keyboard.

Tried swapping the keyboard for a Compaq ditto with a PS/2 connection (rather than the USB corded this one has) - EXACTLY the same results.

Like I mentioned earlier - what's REALLY getting me is the fact that as soon as I get one tab failure in one field, then if I try to start tabbing again from the original (working) field, that one doesn't work either.

One small update on that - it seems that if I tab from field 1 to 2 - successfully - then place focus in field 1 again- without ever getting the beep - tabbing now fails. More testing indicates that I can back-tab, but as soon as I either hit a field that beeps with the tab key or try and use the mouse to place focus in a field and THEN start tabbing, it fails.