Some keys on my keyboard randomly stop responding. I have to wait for 5-10 minutes before they start working again, only for the problem to arise again. This also happens at the grub menu where the enter key becomes unresponsive and at the log in screen where I have to wait for 5-10 minutes before I can log in.
"killall kwin; kwin &" isn't of any help. I have also tried renaming the .kde folder. I have both sticky keys and slow keys disabled.
I am using kde version 4.8.5.
I've been facing this issue since quite sometime now and typing anything is a pain
Thanks and regards

Please run "xev" and change focus to it using the mouse when the keyboard ceases working - does pressing any keys cause output in the console when this happens?

Also, what sort of keyboard is this? If it is USB based, then you might want to verify it is still shown in the output of "lsusb" (an on screen keyboard may help here). If it is wireless, then I would suggest changing the batteries as they may be running low on charge.

This also happens at the grub menu where the enter key becomes unresponsive and at the log in screen where I have to wait for 5-10 minutes before I can log in.

Broken keyboard or usb cable or usb host (slot in the computer)
At "best" a bug in the host cotrol driver (linux kernel module)

If it's an external keyboard, first try to simply replace it - if that doesn't help try a ps/2 keyboard if you can.
If not, check with some life distro (knoppix, tinycore, puppy - using some 2.4 kernel based image will raise odds)
If it happens there (or eg. with windows) as well, you're screwed.

"Broken" keyboards are often broken because of "mud" - you can try to open and clean it, but esp. for notebook devices, you better know what you're doing then.

bcooksley wrote:Please run "xev" and change focus to it using the mouse when the keyboard ceases working - does pressing any keys cause output in the console when this happens?

When I run "xev", pressing keys doesn't cause any output in the console when this happens. But what happens is, I keep the unresponsive key pressed at the console and after a few seconds I see the characters printed to the console and the key becomes responsive.

bcooksley wrote:Also, what sort of keyboard is this? If it is USB based, then you might want to verify it is still shown in the output of "lsusb" (an on screen keyboard may help here). If it is wireless, then I would suggest changing the batteries as they may be running low on charge.

I am using an HP Pavilion laptop.

Also, this doesn't happen on windows.

Thanks and regards

Does or does it not happen already on GRUB level?
If it does and you're ab-so-lu-te-ly sure that it doesn't happen on windows, that's a kernel module problem.
At runtime, you should get error messages about it in "dmesg"

The only error messages dmesg gives me are:

[ 1.336256] pci0000:00: ACPI _OSC request failed (AE_ERROR), returned control mask: 0x1d
..
[ 13.048810] EXT4-fs (sda4): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
..
[ 13.883461] ACPI Error: Field [D128] at 1152 exceeds Buffer [NULL] size 160 (bits) (20110623/dsopcode-236)
[ 13.883489] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.HWMC] (Node ffff880158a3ec30), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.883526] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.WMAD] (Node ffff880158a3efa0), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.885784] ACPI Error: Field [D128] at 1152 exceeds Buffer [NULL] size 160 (bits) (20110623/dsopcode-236)
[ 13.885809] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.HWMC] (Node ffff880158a3ec30), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.885847] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.WMAD] (Node ffff880158a3efa0), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.886079] input: HP WMI hotkeys as /devices/virtual/input/input7
[ 13.887833] ACPI Error: Field [D128] at 1152 exceeds Buffer [NULL] size 160 (bits) (20110623/dsopcode-236)
[ 13.887856] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.HWMC] (Node ffff880158a3ec30), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.887894] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.WMAD] (Node ffff880158a3efa0), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.888058] ACPI Error: Field [D128] at 1152 exceeds Buffer [NULL] size 160 (bits) (20110623/dsopcode-236)
[ 13.888081] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.HWMC] (Node ffff880158a3ec30), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
[ 13.888112] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.WMID.WMAD] (Node ffff880158a3efa0), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20110623/psparse-536)
..
[ 15.043339] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 1a000000, was 12060000
..
[ 261.312186] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 000d0000, was 1a000000
[ 285.294712] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 1a0d0000, was 00000000
[ 321.264793] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 1a0d0000, was 1a000000
[ 960.195332] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 1a0d0000, was 1a000000
[ 1569.050046] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 2149.215168] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 000d0000, was 1a0d0000

And the keys still become responsive without me doing anything after 3-5 minutes.

Thanks and regards

Try whether the keyboard works when passing the kernel "pci=noacpi or acpi=off" (edit the grub entry at boot)
If yes, it's an ACPI issue (and you should seek for a less broad approach - the upper will loose you battery load status and probably keep the fans at max)

I recently booted into windows and I have the same problem there. Looks like a bad keyboard.

Thank you for all the help !
Regards