My long-serving membrane keyboard died the other day and I decided to go for a mechanical one next. I'm loving how the keystrokes feel, but I seem to be experiencing some ghosting. Is that even possible, with a mechanical keyboard?

The issue arises when I'm writing and I try to select some words by pressing Shift+Ctrl+cursor. Now, of all possible left/right Shift/Control combinations, the only one that fails is the one I'm most used to: left-Shift + right-Control, but it only fails when selecting text from left to right. I.e. L-Shift + R-Ctrl + Right cursor fails, while L-Shift + R-Ctrl + Left cursor works OK.

To add to my puzzlement, it's not that some key isn't being detected: the embedded app in this page is picking them up alright.

So... what is it? Is this normal and should I get used to it? Or is my keyboard faulty and should I return it?

It looks like a software issue rather than keyboard being faulty. If that page can detect a key press than most likely keyboard is working fine.

What exactly happens when you press L-Shift + R-Ctrl + Right cursor? Did you try different programs?

A haunted keyboard... that could be a good idea for a terrible B-horror.

Ghosting with just 3 keys?
BTW what model is the keyboard?

Yeah, forgot to mention that. When pressing L-Shift + R-Ctrl + Right cursor, most of the time nothing happens. But, like every fourth or fifth stroke of the right cursor, a word is selected. Plus, if I keep pressing the right cursor after a "successful" stroke, it keeps selecting words indefinitely. But if I keep pressing it after an "unsuccessful" stroke, nothing happens.

And I've tested it with all the programs I could find that allow text selection with the Shift key, so it doesn't seem to be a program-specific problem.

It's a cheap model from a random Chinese company:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N95GG0C/

That's weird. It does look like the right cursor is not registering, but it's strange that the webpage always picks a key press.

It could be a faulty keyboard, but the fact that it works after a few tries means it's not a ghosting problem that membrane keyboards suffer from.

Can you try connecting the keyboard to a different pc?

It reminds of a problem that I've had with all keyboards for the last 10 years or something, but it is related to the Numpad and Shift combinations and not the cursor keys. Basically a sequence of Shift, and Numpad key presses/depresses would not recognise some cases the depresses. And the fact that Windows recognises Numpad + Shift as Numpad and Shift, but Shift + Numpad is converted to arrow key doesn't help.

Good idea, hadn't thought about that. :S
I've just connected it to an old netbook, and I'm getting the same exact behavior.


PS: maybe it wasn't clear in the OP, but the keyboard that's giving me all this trouble is the new mechanical one I've bought, not the old membrane one. I probably shouldn't have mentioned ghosting, but since I wasn't 100% sure it couldn't happen with mechanical keyboards I left that possibility open.

And one more thing. If you don't see nkey rollover specifically advertised, the chances are good that you will have ghosting problems or 6 key rollover at best.

The ratings seem good. But Should you trust a keyboard that says "Original USB Connector"?

But still ghosting with just 3 keypresses seem a little much.

This sounds a bit silly; but having just tried it to see what happens on my laptop the only time I'm getting that behaviour is if I press the keys in the wrong order. If I hit the arrow key just a moment before I hit the ctrl key it either fails or selects a single letter instead of a word.

So does it fail under careful testing or mainly during use? Are you sure you're hitting them correctly? I know I was playing a game the other day and wondering why I wasn't moving left and realised my hand had drifted over and I was pressing the wrong key entirely..

And failing user error, it might be that the keyboard is registering the key press with some kind of delay? It strikes me that the ctrl and arrow keys are near by and it might be some kind of pour wiring is delaying the capture of the ctrl key till after the arrow key has been registered...

Just a thought.

It's much more common than it seems. The question is: what 3 keys are being pressed. For example I remember a Logitech 105 (which technically is a "gaming keyboard") not being able to handle Numpad 6 + Numpad 8 + Space.

Yup. I just wasn't sure if the term "ghosting" is just a general term when a keypress isn't detected (in which case it could happen to any keyboard whatsover for a variety of reasons) or a specific term to describe the problem membrane keyboard suffer from.

If the same problem occurs in another PC it looks like a faulty keyboard.

OK, since you guys keep mentioning ghosting and I'm still not 100% sure, let me ask it directly: is ghosting possible with a mechanical keyboard? Or any mechanical keyboard, no matter how cheap it is (like mine :P) should be safe from ghosting?


Apart from that:

I'm afraid that's not the case as I've thoroughly tested it indeed. Like, pressing L-Shift and R-Ctrl and then, without releasing my fingers from those 2 keys, repeatedly pressing the right cursor key. As I said, it works (i.e. a new word is selected) once in every 4-5 tries.


It doesn't seem a delay issue either. For once, that Microsoft webpage registers the key presses instantly. And besides, when the combination works it does so immediately, but when it doesn't nothing happens no matter how long I keep the 3 keys pressed.

I also don't think proximity between keys may play a role here, as the combination R-Shift + R-Ctrl + arrow key works flawlessly 100% of the time, and they are all near together.