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quackquack12
Contributor
Contributor

Workstation 15.5.5 - Keyboard issues after upgrade

Not sure if anyone else has come across this?

Was running Workstation 15.5.2 and upgraded to 15.5.5 and once I booted any of m VM's I had an issue with the keyboard. For example:

Escape keys would not work

Caps lock getting stuck on after pressing it once

Anyway, I then had the fun task of removing Workstation 15.5.5 and reinstalling 15.5.2 which was a headache as I then had network adapter issues. I have not long started using Workstation again (used years ago) and more recently have come from another virtualization solution but I haven't seen this before.

I tried with the "Enhanced Keyboard Driver" and without but curious if anyone else had these issues and if so, how to fix them?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Other threads in this forum area:

Caps Lock not working after upgrade to 15.5.5 build-16285975 yesterday

VMware Workstation Pro 15.5.5 build-16285975 - No Numlock change in guest OS


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banackm
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

We're aware of a keyboard issue with Windows Workstation 15.5.5.

Your symptoms aren't exactly the same as some of the other reports you might be able to work-around the issue by setting the config option:

mks.win32.useInjectedMagic=FALSE

In either your VM's vmx file or your per-user config file.

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bob_walker99
Contributor
Contributor

I also have similar issues. It seems as if the caps lock key is rapid firing of its own accord. For example, I just typed this line of text into a terminal in my VM, using no key modifiers:

aBcDEFGHIJKlMNoPqrStUVwXYZ

Similarly NumLock is toggling randomly, so sometimes I get numbers, sometimes arrow functions that underly my number keys.

When in the VM, neither the Caps Lock or NumLock lights work, it's hard to tell if the keys themselves work with the above described behaviour.

I'll try the suggested workaround and report back. I notice the config setting refers to MKS - I saw this in the vmware.log file, don't know if it's relevant or not:

MKS-HookKeyboard: RegQueryValueEx(LowLevelHooksTimeout) failed: The system cannot find the file specified (2)

VMware® Workstation 15 Pro
15.5.5 build-16285975

Host: Windows 10, 64-bit  (Build 18363.836) 10.0.18363

Guest: Ubuntu 14.04 x64

Keyboard: Microsoft Surface Ergonomic

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GarySu
Contributor
Contributor

I also have same issues, please help me....

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OechsNeo
Contributor
Contributor

me too! who not?

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banackm
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Does the config option I posted solve your problem?

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bob_walker99
Contributor
Contributor

Tentatively, yes, although I didn’t use it Wednesday, and I was doing different stuff with it today (less typing).
It certainly seemed better, but I’d need a little longer with it to be sure / happy / conclusive.
I’ll post a more detailed update tomorrow; hope that’s ok.

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dencoboy
Contributor
Contributor

I upgraded to 15.5.5 today and am experiencing similar issues...generally unresponsive LOCK keys.  My upgrade process was to uninstall 15.1.0 but keep config/license, install 15.5.5, then reboot host.  When I first launched Workstation and my VMs following the upgrade, I immediately noticed intermittent chirping coming from my speaker as I was launching my VMs.  Once they were up and running I noticed the VMTools Upgrade Available indicator.  At first I thought the chirping might be a subliminal "you need to upgrade VMTools" indicator, but after upgrading VMTools, the chirping continued.  I then noticed the issues with the LOCK keys.  I have ToggleKeys enabled on both the host (W10 Pro 18363.836) and the guest (W10 Pro 18363.815), and noticed when I would switch LOCK states that I'd hear a faint double-chirp.  This led me to disabling ToggleKeys on the host, which eliminated the double-chirp.

I shutdown all my VMs, installed the mks.win32.useInjectedMagic=FALSE workaround in the per-user config, and rebooted the host.  I now have ToggleKeys enabled on both host and guest, and things seem to be mostly working.  It's not 100% as I still occasionally hear a double-chirp, but it is at least mostly usable for now.

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UZETH768948
Contributor
Contributor

This happened to me once I have upgraded to 15.5.5 as well.

I tried every troubleshooting step and the only way to fix that was to revert to 15.1.

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kermit2030
Contributor
Contributor

This is happening to me after upgrading Workstation too and the config file edit above didn't work either. My capslock key light doesn't work either.

I am using both Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 LTS and keys going in caps and lowercase by themselves.

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cdcirexx
Contributor
Contributor

I have a similar issue as well, I have Server 2012 r2, and updated recently to 15.5.5, and after logging out of the server, I log back in, and the mouse and start button key wont work, all other items are clickable except the start button, it looks like its intermittent, hopefully vmware is aware and has a fix coming

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

FYI, VMware Workstation 15.5.6 was released and has a fix for these issues.

See also:

Workstation 15.5.6 now available

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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bfburkejr
Contributor
Contributor

I am sure this is not what anyone whats to hear, but there is or was a hacked version of Workstation 15.5.5 as follows: VMware Workstation Pro 15.5.5 Build 16285975 (x64) with the text in the square brackets on the end of the file.    [_KeyGen]   IF, you upgrade might have been from this or other similar sources, not that anyone's were, it could be the source of your problems. I do not mean to imply that anyone here has used a hacked or KeyGen'd version. Just in case though, I thought I would post this. Sometimes files like this can get passes around without the person downloading it knowing it even contains a keygen, etc. I only am posting this just in case. I do not mean to offense anyone and do not use Cracked software myself. I just had a friend with issues of this and was looking the specific build up to see if there were any other people having issues. I ran across a posting for the keygened version saying it was compromised.

Best of luck!

Brian F. burke Jr.

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OLI123456
Contributor
Contributor

Good evening,

It was during an LAB SDN on the MOOC Coursera site, after having installed the Oracle hypervisor VMBox 6.1.10  then, VMWare Workstation Player 15 after having only had this choice after installing the Hashicorp Wagrant wrapper for my Microsoft Windows 10 64 bits platform , that I experienced an unpleasant surprise: not smooth movements of the mouse cursor, enormous latency of the ETHERNET interfaces after I had just  the optical fiber ibe nstalled at home !!! In short, a PC cut for games, which had become degraded by an erratic latency of 160 ms instead of 12 ms.

Very annoying while from the start, I had not made a backup image of the OS. If necessary, reseting  the Factory settings should comply... and In the worst case, reinstalling the games ... The PC was architectured  to that purpose, in the beginning.

Otherwise, for the bug, I found one or two anomalies: first: a directory ( or repository ) to delete manually that a Windows disinstalling processus  should have properly treated. Second: a bad interaction between a the anti-virus and ports left open to communities sessions and that would bring processeurs to their knees, a very slow PC.

What a very motivating and attractive environnement  on Coursera web site : I slammed the the door because the course itself was not to go through a retro-enginiering course on how to  find bugs on that point but just to speedup on  working on the interresting points to be studied.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I am not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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