2018-06-01 23:48:10

Yes, exactly as the title says.
And I don't even know, if it is a screen-reader related issue or not, I have absolutely no idea what is causing it.
Tried to google for the answer, but just can't find an answer to my specific case and problem.

So here is how it happens:
I am using NVDA, and Windows 10, but this problem kept often occuring even while I used windows 8.1.
So, when I start, or restart my computer, everything works ok, num-lock is initially turned on, that is how I want it to be.
(I know how to initially activate/deactivate it in registry, there is no need for that)
Then, after some random time period, sometimes even after a full day or so, (I turn my computer totally off very rarely), and mostly after an idle period, while I am away from keyboard, aka afk, the mentioned problem starts happening...again, without doing anything at all, without performing any action or operation.

I guess we should 1st determine, if it is an NVDA-related issue, or a system-related one perhaps?

Just to explain why this bothers me so much:
In my favorite game WBL, which I spend the most of my spare-time with, one of the hardest, and most time-demanding activity is creating, aka writing, editing, modifying so called fight-plans.
In those fight-plans, which are, in my case, sometimes even over 20k characters long, the symbol /, along with numbers, is very, very commonly used, more times in every single line!
Now please imagine, that each time I press it while working on a fight-plan, the num-lock key gets deactivated, and unless I press num-lock again to reactivate it, next time I press / the mouse left-click gets triggered, which, depending on my current cursor-location, performs various, totally unwanted, and very annoying operations, sometimes even ruins my whole work, which is often a more-hours effort!
So let's say I took a nap, or ate my dinner, then came back to my computer and WBL, started constructing a new fight-plan, with many dozens of lines containing parts like 8/1/11, 4B/8/8, 5H/10/5, 1/1/18, etc, and each single time I press the /...phewww, believe me, it's annoying like hell!!!

So I always get so much pissed off...and yes, this issue, as far as I know by now, can ONLY be solved either by restarting the computer, or, as I lately found out, by restarting NVDA, (so yes, it is very likely a screen-reader related problem), but strangely, after exiting NVDA, the starting key-combination for it doesn't work, so I cannot restart it alone anymore, but only with a help of a sighted person!

There, this is my, very annoying issue...eagerly awaiting your hints and suggestions!

2018-06-02 00:03:19

Oh yeah, just to note:
Neither setting NVDA back to its defaults, nor even completely reinstalling it solves the issue, we did both, reinstalled it when changing from Windows 8.1 to 10, and did reset it to defaults a few times after it...nope, the problem still keeps occuring.

2018-06-02 14:50:05

1) you have JAWS in the picture at all? 2) possible to disable the mouse? actually, is this even a laptop or a desktop to begin with?

2018-06-03 10:11:03

It's a desktop, as a devoted and passionate gamer, I never used laptops in my life.

And I have no idea what Jaws has got to do with this...I use NVDA, always used it since my vision loss, we did intend to try out Jaws too, so a misfunctioning copy of Jaws was installed, and then uninstalled from my computer, but it was under my previous system, Windows 8.1, my hard-drive, (actually system drive C),  got cleared, and windows 10 installed to it over a year ago, normally with the only one, NVDA screen-reader this time.

2018-06-03 10:14:22

But I repeat, the issue was occuring both under my previous, and current operating system...and this is the strangest part of it, which I am totally clueless about!

2018-06-03 11:50:49

let me ask why I asked about JAWS. JAWS has a setting, where it can modify the start of the numlock key. so what I was thinking of, if the PC goes to sleep, and you used JAWS on the log in screen, maybe that had to do with it. since you don't have JAWS, I don't have any ideas at the moment.

2018-06-03 18:02:55

Ah, I got it.
And are you sure NVDA has no such setting?

Normally I went, actually cycled through all of its options and settings more times, and haven't found a similar one to it, but who knows...my issue seems so similar to what you have described, that it really makes me suspicious...

2018-06-03 18:40:03

NVDA doesn't do that. The guys there realize its your computer and you'll set it up how you'd like, they don't mess with it XD. On a more serious note, it does sound like maybe you accidentally remapped a key somehow, I don't know dude, this just sounds odd, like really odd. In the Track Kings topic, you said you were fluent in German, does that mean you have the German keyboard layout, if so, I'd switch to it and hit the key that's the backslash in your layout, if it doesn't trigger, hit the German backslash key and see if that triggers, its not really an end solution per se, but its a path to potential clues, and I think we could use some more clues to help solve this, because I honestly don't know at this point.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-06-04 00:21:32 (edited by Caccio72 2018-06-04 00:39:12)

No, my nationality is hungarian, but I lived in former Yugoslavia til 2001, then relocated to my "original" home country Hungary, and living there ever since.
So although I speak both hungarian and serbian-croatian on a mother tongue level, and both english and german fluently, (in old Yugoslavia a great emphasis was placed on teaching/learning foreign languages), my keyboard layout is hungarian, normally with hungarian symbols as defaults.

But maybe hungarian keyboards can have the same issues as german ones, after all we do share characters like ö and ü...

Do you happen to know of any, which may cause my strange problem?

2018-06-04 00:34:32

No, not really, but I was thinking more along the lines that something happened with your character map, so switching keyboard layouts to see if a different language's keymap stops this behavior was one troubleshooting step that might have yielded a clue as to the root cause.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-06-04 00:42:50

Now that sounds like a good idea to try out!
So next time the issue will occure, I shall try to switch my keyboard-layout to english, german, or serbian even, and check if the problem will still prevail.

Many thanks for this suggestion!

2018-06-04 01:30:23 (edited by Caccio72 2018-06-04 01:32:27)

Oh, and just to clarify something, what may be of a great importance:
(foolishly I forgot to mention it before)

I don't know where the / symbol is on other keyboards, I even forgot where it was located on the english one, (which I have used for many years back in Yugoslavia), but on hungarian it is right next to the num-lock key, so the next, adjacent key to its right.
Normally, being there is also the reason of its secondary, left-mouse-click function in NVDA, which activates each time num-lock is turned off.
(and causes my problems each single time)

Of course, there is supposed to be a 2nd alternative for the / symbol somewhere, but it's probably working with certain key-combination, using which, since typing blind, would also be a slower, and less comfortable solution.

2018-06-04 01:46:46

On the english layout, its to the right of the full stop, to the left of the right shift and below the semicolon.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-06-04 10:49:07

post 13 confused me. isn't numlock to the right of backspace? that is, if a PC has a number pad at the side. I have UK layout, with computers that were manufacturered for UK use, so my keyboard layout may be different, but yeah, that got me wonder. computers without a number pad, simply don't have a numLock by default, unless there is a hidden key somewhere. while interestingly, my mother language is also hungarian, everything on this end is 100% english. suppose I could pull out the keyboard and give it a good old play if that helped, but well.

2018-06-04 13:12:05 (edited by Caccio72 2018-06-05 00:21:21)

Well, just to make sure, I checked the key-configuration settings, meaning the related "hk"-files in the registry, and discovered, that unlike in the initial configuration, where the value was set to 2, (which is where I want it to be, since it starts the system with num-lock turned on), the default configuration had no value set.
So I have set it to 2 as well, again, just to make sure.

Don't know yet, if this will solve my issue, and if it has anything to do with it at all, but we shall see...so far it hasn't occured since then...but only a day have passed, and it occures sometimes only after 2 or 3 days even.
(again, since my system has an automatic power-saving mode, which turns all operations off after a certain time of inactivity, including the system itself and the monitor, I very rarely, almost never turn my computer totally off)

2018-06-06 20:07:03

Woww, over 3 days have passed, and still no issue...is it possible what I did still fixed it?
Is HK keyboard-configuration set the same way by you guys too?
(meaning the other NVDA users of course)

2018-06-16 19:10:35

It seems my mentioned intervention has solved this, long time annoying issue.
This topic can be closed now, thanks for all your hints and contribution!