On my Dell Inspiron laptop when holding the SHIFT key to type something in capital letters the following happens: SILICon kid. As you can see, at some point after one, two or three letters the shift function stops working. I don’t think this is related to the external keyboard (which is connected through a USB hub) as I have replaced the keyboard and the problem continues, The problem also existed before using a USB hub so I don’t think the problem is related to the hub either. How can I make the shift function to work correctly?

It is good to see you have attempted to narrow down the problem by swapping the external keyboard to check whether the problem is related to the keyboard itself. Since the problem occurs with other keyboards, this indicates that the problem is not related to the external keyboard. However, we need to determine whether the problem is caused simply because you are using an external keyboard. Disconnect the external USB keyboard from the computer and try typing on the in-built laptop keyboard. Should the problem continue, this indicates that there is a problem with the computer software or operating system. In this case, there are a few methods we can try to resolve this problem.

You first need to check whether the problem is localised to a particular program (such as Microsoft Word) or occurs across all programs. If the problem only occurs in one particular program, the problem seems localised to that particular program. Try reinstalling the affected program in case this can fix any corruptions or missing files which may be causing the issue.

However, should the same problem occur in other programs the problem is most likely related to Windows, and we should look elsewhere for the root cause of the problem. A common cause of such issues is a program or process running in the background which is conflicting with the keyboard. To determine whether this is the cause, we can try closing all background processes and check whether the problem persists. Before beginning this procedure, restart the computer so that all the normal processes load on Windows startup. Then, make sure your computer is disconnected from any networks (such as the internet) as this process may result in security software being disabled, leaving your computer vulnerable to attack. After this has been done, close all visible programs which are running in the background (including those running in the system tray, next to the clock). Once all visible programs have been closed, you will need to close non-visible background processes. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and the Windows Task Manager should appear. In this window, click the ‘Processes’ tab and a table listing all the running processes will appear. From the table, click the ‘User Name’ column heading to sort the processes by user name (if this column is not visible, go to the ‘View’ menu > ‘Select Columns’ and tick ‘User Name’). After the processes have been sorted by user name, highlight and close all the non-essential processes running under your user name. You should be able to close most processes, except ‘explorer.exe’ (the Windows graphical user interface) and ‘taskmgr.exe’ (the Task Manager, which you are using to close all the other processes). Don’t close any processes running under other user names, since these are processes essential for Windows operation. Once the non-essential background processes have been closed, open one of the programs exhibiting the problem and test whether the problem continues. If not, it seems one of those processes was causing the problem. In that case, restart the computer (so all the background processes re-load) and then close the processes one-by-one, each time checking if the problem stops. This should allow you to narrow down the problem to a particular process. Once found, try determining the purpose of the process (using a facility such as www.processlibrary.com) and then check whether you actually need the process. If not, you could perhaps uninstall the program which uses the process, or manually terminate the process. Alternatively, you could also stop the process loading on startup by going to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes) and click OK. The System Configuration Utility window will appear. In this window, click the ‘Startup’ tab. A table will appear listing all the processes which load on startup. Look through the list and locate the name of the process and untick the entry for that process to disable the process from loading on startup. Click OK and restart the computer, to check whether the problem persists.

However, should the problem continue after closing the background processes, the only other obvious explanation is something wrong with the Windows system. Try running the System File Checker, which will check for any corrupt or missing Windows system files. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ’sfc /scannow’ (without the quotes) and click OK. The SFC will begin operations. When it has finished it will exit silently with no user feedback. Then, restart the computer and check whether the problem has been resolved.

In the alternative situation where the laptop keyboard does not suffer the same problem as the external keyboard, it seems that the external keyboard is causing the problem. As you have tried different keyboards the cause is not a particular keyboard or USB hub, but instead might be the fact that the keyboard is connected externally. First, try reinstalling the USB keyboard on the computer. Make sure the external keyboard is connected, and go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’ and open the ‘System’ control panel (you may need to first click the ‘Performance and Maintenance’ category). In the window that appears, click the ‘Hardware’ tab and the ‘Device Manager’ button. Expand the ‘Keyboards’ category and you should see two keyboards: one will be the internal laptop keyboard, and the other will be the external USB keyboard. Right-click on the external USB keyboard and select ‘Uninstall’. Once the keyboard is uninstalled, restart the computer (be aware, you will need to use the mouse as the external keyboard may no longer work). Once the computer restarts the external keyboard should be detected and reinstalled. At this stage, check whether the problem persists.

Should the problem continue, it is possible that another USB device may be conflicting with the keyboard. Unplug all USB devices from the laptop, and re-connect the keyboard ensuring that the keyboard is directly connected to a USB port on the computer (i.e. is not connected through a USB hub). If the problem doesn’t persist, you will need to play around with different configurations of connected USB devices to discover which device is causing the problem, and you may need to leave the problematic device disconnected unless it is needed. You could also try connecting the problematic device to a different USB port on the computer, in case that makes a difference

All else failing, you could try reinstalling the USB controllers. In the Device Manager, expand ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’. Here you will see all the USB controller devices installed in the computer. Right-click on every entry under this heading, and select ‘Uninstall’. Once this is done, you will likely find that all USB devices (particularly, keyboard and mouse) do not work. However, because you are using a laptop this doesn’t present a major issue, since you can just use the inbuilt keyboard and trackpad to control the computer. Restart the computer and upon restarting, Windows should detect and reinstall all the USB controller devices. Once this has completed, check whether the problem continues.