Solved a problem by getting nice, practical, cheap $14 Logitech keyboard Model K120 out of Walmart.
I had an HP USB Multimedia keyboard model NY419AA which was plugged into my HP G72 laptop running Windows 7. My laptop sits on my coffee table, and the keyboard, mouse, and printer are USB-connected through a powered USB hub and some extension cabling.
I use the keyboard on my lap, and park it on a horizontal suface to my right, but every time I park it there or anywhere about four-five feet away from the machine, the HP keyboard disconnects with that USB beep-boop disconnect sound. When it's on my lap, it's less than three feet from the laptop.
When I pick up the keyboard and put it back on my lap sometimes it reactivates itself with that USB boop-beep connection sound, but sometimes I have to hit some keys a couple of times before it reconnects.
It is not a problem with the cable into the keyboard, nor is it with any of the USB cable connections. When those same three peripherals are connected to my Dell running XP (through a two-position KV-something switch) the keyboard works fine. This same things occured before I started using the switch, and had to manually plug the keyboard into the Dell when I wanted to use it instead of the laptop.
It is as if even though there is a USB cable connection, there is still some kind of short-range radio or other wireless connection to the computer which makes it drop out when I move it more than four-five feet from the computer. Yes, I have a goodly distance of cabling between the machine and the other peripherals, but as I pointed out, the problem does not occur when I connect it to the XP machine through the same switching, power hub, and cabling.
I have checked the Win7 Control Panel for Bluetooth peripherals, but none show up.
I've asked around about this a couple of times in a couple of places and nobody has a "real" answer.
There is no indication from the specs that I can find which would indicate that the HP NY419AA keyboard has any kind of wireless capability.
I was wondering if perhaps the same chipset for wireless keyboards might have been used, which was supposed to be disabled for this particular model, but actually wasn't? (A lot of chips have extra capabilities which might not be activated for a particular market.)
Of course, the solution to this annoying problem was to simply spring for the $14 for a new keyboard (which works great), but I'm still curious as to what might cause it in the first place.
Terry, 230RN
