Thinkpads Forum

I noticed that sometimes when I type, I get a beep. Doing a google search showed that it happens when three keys are pressed at the same time. Only some combinations cause this. For example: FGB, 567, HJK, plus many more.

Is this some kind of wizardry by Lenovo to give us typing lessons?
What is the purpose of this?

I haven't disabled it yet, but here are the instructions if anyone wants to:
1. Right click on my computer, select properties, then click Device Manager
2. Click view -> show hidden devices; this will reveal Non-Plug and Play Drivers, expand it and double click Beep
3. Click the Driver tab, and press the Stop button to turn off.
4. Lastly, select Disabled for Startup Type to make sure it won't start next boot.

The default setting is System if you want to revert back.

*You, the user, are the only person responsible for your actions and performing. I take no responsibility.

Sense wrote:Is this some kind of wizardry by Lenovo to give us typing lessons?

No. I guess, this is some kind of cost-reduction by IBM, to "simplify" or "de-feature" products. Having used a few ThinkPad T,X and keyboard Model M side-by-side, I believe IBM reused electrical/wire design of Model M in ThinkPad products. IBM's Model M is widely regarded as inferior to Model F, one reason being its complete 2-key rollover and very limited 3KRO.

Re: ThinkPad 600X - key rollover on arrow keys?

I think this is pretty common on most keyboards. Only some very high-end or "gaming" keyboards will reliably work with multiple keys pressed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_%28key%29

If you don't want to go poking around Device Manager, I think you could do the same thing in BIOS. At least for my T420 (and others before it), there's a setting under Config/Beep and Alarm named Keyboard Beep that will disable the beep. I tested it out using W7 and it works.

rkawakami wrote:If you don't want to go poking around Device Manager, I think you could do the same thing in BIOS. At least for my T420 (and others before it), there's a setting under Config/Beep and Alarm named Keyboard Beep that will disable the beep. I tested it out using W7 and it works.

Great alternative. I tested it and it works!

jdrou wrote:I think this is pretty common on most keyboards. Only some very high-end or "gaming" keyboards will reliably work with multiple keys pressed.

Most desktop keyboards are somewhere in between. They are not as bad as laptop keyboards, that is, most 3-key combinations work. But they are not full n-key rollover like high-end mechanical keyboards.

I had a similar problem once that turned out to be the Accessibility option "StickyKeys."