I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism
/online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was
disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
Despite that, the problem remains.

If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like
0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.

Any ideas?

--
rabidPedagog
TG: @rabidPedagog
Galatians 6:7

On 6/14/23 10:56, rabidPedagog wrote:
> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism
> /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was
> disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
> Despite that, the problem remains.
>
> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like
> 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>
> Any ideas?
>

Try the easy stuff first.

--> shutdown
--> pull power cord out of back
--> wait five minutes
--> fire back up
If problem goes away, disable Fast Startup.

Also, did you check with a second keyboard
to see it it is you keyboard or Windows?

And check with a Linux Live USB to see if
the problem persists?

https://spins.fedoraproject.org/

MATE would be a good one to try

On 6/14/2023 1:56 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US. Despite that, the problem remains.
>
> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>
> Any ideas?
>
Are you running SharpKeys ? This is an example of a tool
for causing your symptoms.

http://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/

"SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard
act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you
could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn it off completely."

Maybe the registry area where the hyphen is located, has been "remapped to nothing" ?

You need something to read out that registry section.

*******

This is the kind of research you could try:

https://superuser.com/questions/1402967/how-to-undo-custom-keyboard-mapping-in-registry

I've never needed to do any of this, so can't really accelerate
this process for you.

Paul

On Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:56:07 -0400, rabidPedagog <rabid@pedag.og> wrote:

>I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism
>/online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was
>disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
>Despite that, the problem remains.
>
>If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like
>0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>
>Any ideas?

I don't know if it's a valid test, but I sometimes use the On-Screen
Keyboard (osk.exe) if I need to check something like that. OSK is part
of Windows, up through Win 10, at least.

On Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:07:29 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>On 6/14/2023 1:56 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US. Despite that, the problem remains.
>>
>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>Are you running SharpKeys ? This is an example of a tool
>for causing your symptoms.

I've used SharpKeys for years. I like it a lot, and it's never caused
me any problems.

>
>http://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/
>
> "SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard
> act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you
> could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn it off completely."

Turning it (and Insert) off is exactly what I use it for.

>Maybe the registry area where the hyphen is located, has been "remapped to nothing" ?
>
>You need something to read out that registry section.
>
>*******
>
>This is the kind of research you could try:
>
>https://superuser.com/questions/1402967/how-to-undo-custom-keyboard-mapping-in-registry
>
>I've never needed to do any of this, so can't really accelerate
>this process for you.
>
> Paul

On 2023-06-14 3:00 p.m., T wrote:
> On 6/14/23 10:56, rabidPedagog wrote:
>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and
>> dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys
>> was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
>> Despite that, the problem remains.
>>
>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key
>> (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>
>
> Try the easy stuff first.
>
> --> shutdown
>   --> pull power cord out of back
>     --> wait five minutes
>       --> fire back up
> If problem goes away, disable Fast Startup.
>
> Also, did you check with a second keyboard
> to see it it is you keyboard or Windows?
>
> And check with a Linux Live USB to see if
> the problem persists?
>
> https://spins.fedoraproject.org/
>
> MATE would be a good one to try

I can confirm that the problem does not exist in Linux at all (I used
both Fedora and Pop! OS). I disabled fast startup a while back and the
problem remained.

--
rabidPedagog
TG: @rabidPedagog
Galatians 6:7

On 2023-06-14 3:07 p.m., Paul wrote:
> On 6/14/2023 1:56 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and
>> dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys
>> was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
>> Despite that, the problem remains.
>>
>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key
>> (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
> Are you running SharpKeys ? This is an example of a tool
> for causing your symptoms.
>
> http://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/
>
>    "SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a
> keyboard
>     act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock
> often, you
>     could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn
> it off completely."
>
> Maybe the registry area where the hyphen is located, has been "remapped
> to nothing" ?
>
> You need something to read out that registry section.
>
> *******
>
> This is the kind of research you could try:
>
> https://superuser.com/questions/1402967/how-to-undo-custom-keyboard-mapping-in-registry
>
> I've never needed to do any of this, so can't really accelerate
> this process for you.

I should mention that this machine was recently completely reinstalled.
It was happening from time to time on my previous Windows install but I
decided to play with both Fedora and Pop! OS on which this problem
wasn't present. I reinstalled Windows 11 on June 6th and had the problem
almost immediately. I would think that it is a hardware issue except
that it works fine in Linux and the hyphen does appear when a
combination is pressed.

--
rabidPedagog
TG: @rabidPedagog
Galatians 6:7

On 2023-06-14 3:17 p.m., Char Jackson wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:56:07 -0400, rabidPedagog <rabid@pedag.og> wrote:
>
>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism
>> /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was
>> disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
>> Despite that, the problem remains.
>>
>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like
>> 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>
> I don't know if it's a valid test, but I sometimes use the On-Screen
> Keyboard (osk.exe) if I need to check something like that. OSK is part
> of Windows, up through Win 10, at least.

It works without issue on the On-Screen keyboard. Funny enough, just
now, it wasn't working at all until I did a combination of CTRL-- which
made my font smaller. Then, it was suddenly working consistently. It
goes back and forth between not working, working consistently, working
after a delay and not working.

--
rabidPedagog
TG: @rabidPedagog
Galatians 6:7

On 6/14/23 13:24, rabidPedagog wrote:
> On 2023-06-14 3:00 p.m., T wrote:
>> On 6/14/23 10:56, rabidPedagog wrote:
>>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and
>>> dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys
>>> was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to
>>> US. Despite that, the problem remains.
>>>
>>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key
>>> (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>
>>
>> Try the easy stuff first.
>>
>> --> shutdown
>>    --> pull power cord out of back
>>      --> wait five minutes
>>        --> fire back up
>> If problem goes away, disable Fast Startup.
>>
>> Also, did you check with a second keyboard
>> to see it it is you keyboard or Windows?
>>
>> And check with a Linux Live USB to see if
>> the problem persists?
>>
>> https://spins.fedoraproject.org/
>>
>> MATE would be a good one to try
>
> I can confirm that the problem does not exist in Linux at all (I used
> both Fedora and Pop! OS). I disabled fast startup a while back and the
> problem remained.
>

How about safe mode?

On 2023-06-14 4:39 p.m., T wrote:
> On 6/14/23 13:24, rabidPedagog wrote:
>> On 2023-06-14 3:00 p.m., T wrote:
>>> On 6/14/23 10:56, rabidPedagog wrote:
>>>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and
>>>> dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky
>>>> keys was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French
>>>> to US. Despite that, the problem remains.
>>>>
>>>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>>>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key
>>>> (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Try the easy stuff first.
>>>
>>> --> shutdown
>>>    --> pull power cord out of back
>>>      --> wait five minutes
>>>        --> fire back up
>>> If problem goes away, disable Fast Startup.
>>>
>>> Also, did you check with a second keyboard
>>> to see it it is you keyboard or Windows?
>>>
>>> And check with a Linux Live USB to see if
>>> the problem persists?
>>>
>>> https://spins.fedoraproject.org/
>>>
>>> MATE would be a good one to try
>>
>> I can confirm that the problem does not exist in Linux at all (I used
>> both Fedora and Pop! OS). I disabled fast startup a while back and the
>> problem remained.
>
> How about safe mode?

There doesn't seem to be an option for safe startup when I choose the
advanced settings at startup.

--
rabidPedagog
TG: @rabidPedagog
Galatians 6:7

"In the way? Au contraire! I would suck and get fucked by her dick,
if she's down for that." - exemplary heterosexual Joel Crump

On 6/14/2023 4:26 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
> On 2023-06-14 3:07 p.m., Paul wrote:
>> On 6/14/2023 1:56 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
>>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US. Despite that, the problem remains.
>>>
>>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>> Are you running SharpKeys ? This is an example of a tool
>> for causing your symptoms.
>>
>> http://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/
>>
>>     "SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard
>>      act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you
>>      could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn it off completely."
>>
>> Maybe the registry area where the hyphen is located, has been "remapped to nothing" ?
>>
>> You need something to read out that registry section.
>>
>> *******
>>
>> This is the kind of research you could try:
>>
>> https://superuser.com/questions/1402967/how-to-undo-custom-keyboard-mapping-in-registry
>>
>> I've never needed to do any of this, so can't really accelerate
>> this process for you.
>
> I should mention that this machine was recently completely reinstalled. It was happening from time to time on my previous Windows install but I decided to play with both Fedora and Pop! OS on which this problem wasn't present. I reinstalled Windows 11 on June 6th and had the problem almost immediately. I would think that it is a hardware issue except that it works fine in Linux and the hyphen does appear when a combination is pressed.
>

When you install, what language do you use ?

What is the keyboard set to ?

In Googling (only a couple Googles so far), I'm not seeing
anything particularly centered around the hyphen key.

I find anything related to language, seems to be buried
five layers deep in settings panels. And it's pretty hard
to find any options settings. The Windows 7 language dialog
was a little clearer about what your input options were,
and allowed a nuisance one to be removed. (Nuisance means
you keep pressing some key sequence by accident and the
keyboard definitions change.)

On this platform, I don't think the keyboard is particularly
declaratory. A trick on Sparcs, was to use the four position
DIP switch underneath, to change the keyboard declaration.
But I don't think PCs have that -- it's up to the user to look
at the key caps, and set up the PC to match the keyboard.

Well, you and I know this is a language or a locale or a Region
issue, and is not likely to be hardware based on the evidence
so far. That Linux is working OK is not a surprise. It's just
a matter of discovering what bloody thing in Windows has flipped
when it wasn't supposed to.

The keyboard driver has a date stamp of 2006, and that's a hint
that the driver has not changed in a while. There was a change
in Windows, possibly around Windows 7, where the three general
keyboard layouts, the handling of that changed. The keyboard
with numpad, would be handled differently than the shorter keyboard
without the numpad, and there was a third keyboard layout with a
different number of keys. And for some reason, they decided to
rewrite part of that. But I don't know if that particularly would
affect a hyphen key. Only if you had a really weird keyboard
(like when I connect my Mac Extended Keyboard, using an ADB
to USB adapter), would you expect the handling to not be so good.
And that actually works OK. I don't think the power button triangle
works.

Summary: Your problem is software. But I don't know what you
could have selected to generate these symptoms. A
Repair Install, keeps a lot of Registry stuff without
changing it. A Fresh Install would not keep anything.
A Fresh Install without connecting the network cable, would
give a chance to test... without inheriting anything via
an MSA route.

Paul

On 2023-06-14 9:10 p.m., Paul wrote:
> On 6/14/2023 4:26 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
>> On 2023-06-14 3:07 p.m., Paul wrote:
>>> On 6/14/2023 1:56 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
>>>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and
>>>> dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky
>>>> keys was disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French
>>>> to US. Despite that, the problem remains.
>>>>
>>>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>>>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key
>>>> (like 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>
>>> Are you running SharpKeys ? This is an example of a tool
>>> for causing your symptoms.
>>>
>>> http://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/
>>>
>>>     "SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys
>>> on a keyboard
>>>      act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps
>>> Lock often, you
>>>      could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even
>>> turn it off completely."
>>>
>>> Maybe the registry area where the hyphen is located, has been
>>> "remapped to nothing" ?
>>>
>>> You need something to read out that registry section.
>>>
>>> *******
>>>
>>> This is the kind of research you could try:
>>>
>>> https://superuser.com/questions/1402967/how-to-undo-custom-keyboard-mapping-in-registry
>>>
>>> I've never needed to do any of this, so can't really accelerate
>>> this process for you.
>>
>> I should mention that this machine was recently completely
>> reinstalled. It was happening from time to time on my previous Windows
>> install but I decided to play with both Fedora and Pop! OS on which
>> this problem wasn't present. I reinstalled Windows 11 on June 6th and
>> had the problem almost immediately. I would think that it is a
>> hardware issue except that it works fine in Linux and the hyphen does
>> appear when a combination is pressed.
>>
>
> When you install, what language do you use ?
>
> What is the keyboard set to ?
>
> In Googling (only a couple Googles so far), I'm not seeing
> anything particularly centered around the hyphen key.
>
> I find anything related to language, seems to be buried
> five layers deep in settings panels. And it's pretty hard
> to find any options settings. The Windows 7 language dialog
> was a little clearer about what your input options were,
> and allowed a nuisance one to be removed. (Nuisance means
> you keep pressing some key sequence by accident and the
> keyboard definitions change.)
>
> On this platform, I don't think the keyboard is particularly
> declaratory. A trick on Sparcs, was to use the four position
> DIP switch underneath, to change the keyboard declaration.
> But I don't think PCs have that -- it's up to the user to look
> at the key caps, and set up the PC to match the keyboard.
>
> Well, you and I know this is a language or a locale or a Region
> issue, and is not likely to be hardware based on the evidence
> so far. That Linux is working OK is not a surprise. It's just
> a matter of discovering what bloody thing in Windows has flipped
> when it wasn't supposed to.
>
> The keyboard driver has a date stamp of 2006, and that's a hint
> that the driver has not changed in a while. There was a change
> in Windows, possibly around Windows 7, where the three general
> keyboard layouts, the handling of that changed. The keyboard
> with numpad, would be handled differently than the shorter keyboard
> without the numpad, and there was a third keyboard layout with a
> different number of keys. And for some reason, they decided to
> rewrite part of that. But I don't know if that particularly would
> affect a hyphen key. Only if you had a really weird keyboard
> (like when I connect my Mac Extended Keyboard, using an ADB
> to USB adapter), would you expect the handling to not be so good.
> And that actually works OK. I don't think the power button triangle
> works.
>
> Summary: Your problem is software. But I don't know what you
>          could have selected to generate these symptoms. A
>          Repair Install, keeps a lot of Registry stuff without
>          changing it. A Fresh Install would not keep anything.
>          A Fresh Install without connecting the network cable, would
>          give a chance to test... without inheriting anything via
>          an MSA route.

As I write this, the hyphen is magically working for no obvious reason.
I can type it repeatedly without issue. Meanwhile, I've changed
absolutely nothing in my settings since making the complaint.

Since you asked, I install an English (US) version of the Windows 11 ISO
because no Canadian English ISO exists. During the installation process,
I choose the French Canadian keyboard since it's the one I'm most
accustomed to. Of course, Windows completely disregards this and
installs the US keyboard anyway post installation and keeps it there no
matter how much I remove it. I therefore have to install the French
Canadian keyboard again and remove the American English one. I imagine
that the keyboard remains because the ISO is an American English one,
and that the fact that I downloaded all language packs to turn
everything into Canadian English does nothing to remove all of the
American stuff, thus forcing me to still have the US layout even though
it is absent from Regional Settings.

--
rabidPedagog
TG: @rabidPedagog
Galatians 6:7

"In the way? Au contraire! I would suck and get fucked by her dick,
if she's down for that." - exemplary heterosexual Joel Crump

On 6/14/2023 4:30 PM, rabidPedagog wrote:
> On 2023-06-14 3:17 p.m., Char Jackson wrote:
>> On Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:56:07 -0400, rabidPedagog <rabid@pedag.og> wrote:
>>
>>> I reinstalled the keyboard driver, did the routine sfc /scannow and dism
>>> /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I also made sure sticky keys was
>>> disabled and changed keyboard settings from Canadian French to US.
>>> Despite that, the problem remains.
>>>
>>> If I press the key alone for a hyphen, nothing appears. If I press
>>> shift+hyphen, it'll underline as it should. If I hold a second key (like
>>> 0) with hyphen, the hyphen will appear.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>
>> I don't know if it's a valid test, but I sometimes use the On-Screen
>> Keyboard (osk.exe) if I need to check something like that. OSK is part
>> of Windows, up through Win 10, at least.
>
> It works without issue on the On-Screen keyboard. Funny enough, just now, it wasn't working at all until I did a combination of CTRL-- which made my font smaller. Then, it was suddenly working consistently. It goes back and forth between not working, working consistently, working after a delay and not working.
>

I looked through this, and don't see something hyphen related.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-keyboard-shortcuts-for-accessibility-021bcb62-45c8-e4ef-1e4f-41b8c1fc87fd

There is an option for Narrator to tell you when a key has been pressed.
But I don't know if that includes telling you when say, Sticky Keys
has been engaged. There's a tone for that.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/jq1FkG6G/narrator.gif

Paul