Keyboard LEDs occasionally gets "stuck" when using WinCompose

[moxwel]

This occurs randomly, sometimes works as normal, sometimes not.

When the ◆ Compose key is pressed, the Scroll Lock LED lights up until the composing is done. This is the normal behavior.

Other times, the LED doesn't light up, nor the other LEDs like Num Lock and Caps Lock, they get "stuck" somewhat to say. In this case, when I press the Caps Lock key, the corresponding LED don't light up (or don't turn off), the same with the Num Lock key, Scroll Lock key, and ◆ Compose key.

When this happens, I tried to unplug the keyboard, or restart WinCompose, but that doesn't solve the problem. I have to restart my PC to "reset" the LEDs of the keyboard.

I don't know if this is a problem of my keyboard specifically or not, but this happens only when WinCompose is running.

¿There's a possibility to "reset" the LEDs status of a keyboard from software? I mean, from WinCompose, a button to reset the LEDs, or in the Debug Window add messages about that.

[samhocevar]

Thanks for the report. I have activated this feature on my computer (I usually do not use it) in an effort to reproduce the problem, but so far without success. After how much time would you say this usually occurs?

[moxwel]

Hmm, I've noticed that his happen more often when I'm using it constantly for about 45 min or 1 hour.

I use the compose key a lot when I'm writing math assignments, I haven't noticed at that moment when this happens exactly because I'm focused writing.

This time I will be paying attention when this happens again, and see if some key combinations or some clicks cause this issue.

If this is helpful: I've assigned the Pause/Break key to WinCompose.

[romibi]

I have this issue, or a similar one, as well … as mentioned in #404 I have the Compose key LED (Caps Lock) configured to show the status …

For me the LED(s) don't get fully stuck … most often the just don't match the WinCompose state … (Light up when WinCompose icon is black, Off when WinCompose icon is green) I thought it had to do with me using Remote Desktop and having WinCompose active on both the remote and local Windows.

I have Caps Lock and F14 as Compose Key (although F14 is never or really seldom used by my scripts) Additionally I also have an AutoHotkeyScript assigned to Pause/Break so maybe it has to do with that key?

Interestingly if in such a situation I press both Shift (to activate normal Caps Lock) and press 1 Shift again, the LED turns off (and Scroll Lock LED turns on‽ #321?) but after some seconds turns on again …

Sometimes i can get it unstuck by toggling Caps Lock while clicking the (now missing) Restart Option of WinCompose. Most often I need to close all instances of WinCompose (on local and remote) and toggle Caps Lock and Scroll Lock a few times (on local and remote). Sometimes I also unplug the keyboard which is easy for me because my Keyboard has a detachable cord. But I never had to reboot because of this…

[samhocevar]

Hi! And thank you for being patient. I believe this issue may be fixed in WinCompose 0.9.11. Could you please test the new version?

[moxwel]

Let me test it for a couple days.

To mention: I noticed that selecting "Compose" in Keyboard LED setting, no longer light up the Scroll Lock LED. Selecting "Scroll Lock" work as intended tho.

[sigprof]

Seems that the “Compose” choice for the LED actually means “the LED which is associated with the currently selected compose key, if that key is one of {Caps,Num,Scroll} Lock”. So if I select Scroll Lock as the compose key, the “Compose” choice for the LED lights up the Scroll Lock LED while composing; if I then switch the compose key to Caps Lock, the Caps Lock LED lights up while composing with the same LED settings. And if a key which does not have a corresponding LED is chosen, the “Compose” choice for the LED just does not do anything.

(Actually I would really like that WinCompose would be able control the state of the Compose LED, which is available in the USB HID protocol, but apparently the underlying Windows API (IOCTL_KEYBOARD_SET_INDICATORS) does not support that; the only other obscure LED which seems to be supported there is the Kana LED (KEYBOARD_KANA_LOCK_ON), but I'm not sure whether that bit actually works, and you would need some really special keyboard to see that indicator.)

[moxwel]

Unfortunately, it happened again... but I think is less often tho. In any case, I'm starting to suspect that this problem is with my keyboard.

My keyboard has lights, but when it doesn't have activity (no key press) for 10 minutes, the lights shut off, like a "power saving mode" or something, pressing a key "reactivates" the keyboard. One time, after the keyboard entered that state, the bug with WinCompose occurs.