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Help Epic hardware keyboard input problem

many folks claim it doesn't happen to them. I was thinking maybe since my 4 replacements were all from the same store is it possible all or most phones they have can have issue and maybe a unit or units in a distant location don't ? ehh idk
 
Try posting this on the Sprint forum.
They fixed the upload cap because enough people complained on that thread.
The forum Admin did a great job there communicating the problem to support.
 
Just Googled to see if anyone else was having this problem and found this thread. I'm on my second Epic (first one was bricked by the most recent update) with the exact same problem. I'm an extremely fast typist as well, and while I auto-correct mistakes *I* make, auto-correcting mistakes made by it ignoring my input is much slower. This has really bugged me, since I drastically prefer the hardware keyboard for long amounts of text, or for typing out code, addresses, or words/names that aren't in the dictionary. When I HAVE to use Swype to be more likely to get accurate results, something's definitely wrong.

I also occasionally have the keyboard "stick," and type the same letter until I manage to get another key to override it. Anyone else have this? Less common problem, but possibly related.
 
I just got off the phone with Samsung tech support.

They told me they wanted me to mail them the phone so they could "repair" it, and that they had no idea about any issues regarding the keyboard dropping keys at random while you're typing.

I asked the rep if they had some sort of global unresolved ticketing system that they could keep track of issues like this, and she said no. I asked her what happens if I have the issue again after they send me a replacement and at first she told me "That's not possible" and then told me that they would continue to send me replacements until my warranty expired.

Absolutely ****ing useless.

This was after emailing back and forth with their support email service which pawned me off on the phone reps.

I went through a lot of pains to get this phone, and the keyboard being badly engineered is bad enough, but the key drop issue is just absolutely unacceptable, it needs to be fixed.

You guys should call Samsung support and complain about this, maybe if we all call in they'll do something about it.

1-888-987-4357

--Locane
 
Locane said:
I just got off the phone with Samsung tech support.

They told me they wanted me to mail them the phone so they could "repair" it, and that they had no idea about any issues regarding the keyboard dropping keys at random while you're typing.

I asked the rep if they had some sort of global unresolved ticketing system that they could keep track of issues like this, and she said no. I asked her what happens if I have the issue again after they send me a replacement and at first she told me "That's not possible" and then told me that they would continue to send me replacements until my warranty expired.

Absolutely ****ing useless.

This was after emailing back and forth with their support email service which pawned me off on the phone reps.

I went through a lot of pains to get this phone, and the keyboard being badly engineered is bad enough, but the key drop issue is just absolutely unacceptable, it needs to be fixed.

You guys should call Samsung support and complain about this, maybe if we all call in they'll do something about it.

1-888-987-4357

--Locane
Click to expand...

I hate to say it, cuz I love my Epic, but it sounds like it's not a fit for you, or other power typists.
 
Locane said:
It's not about "power typing", it's about the keyboard being faulty.

It doesn't matter how fast you type.

It doesn't matter how hard you hit the keys.

The Epic will drop keystrokes at random while you type, as many people in this thread have stated, as well as this blogger guy:

Exxodium: The Epic 4G Keyboard Issue
Click to expand...

if the keyboard is faulty, then i agree that's a hardware issue and sprint should exchange it for you, on an individual basis. As again, my keyboard is not a problem so i disagree that this is global to all epics.
 
This happens to me fairly often, especially with the space bar. I figured that you have to press each key with a certain amount of pressure, and when you type fast, you occassionly miss.... I'm thinking this is just how the keyboard is.
 
You know this still happens for me after going to different Sprint Corporate stores to exchange to rule out bad batches. This is my 4th epic FYI.
 
It's not about missing a key or pressure of the press. There is just something faulty wth the keyboard(the 'y' dropped) in general. Many of us have had more than one epic and have had the problem on each one. I didn't have it on the Moment. Never had it on my Palm phones. And there is enough reporting on the issue to say it is an issue. I actually thbought it was me at first as I'm used to getting ahead of myself while typing since I type fairly quick. But after watching the screen and keyboard while typing, I realized it was the keyboard, not me.
yogi2000 said:
This happens to me fairly often, especially with the space bar. I figured that you have to press each key with a certain amount of pressure, and when you type fast, you occassionly miss.... I'm thinking this is just how the keyboard is.
Click to expand...


And to the person who said maybe this phone isn't for the power typer? Get a clue, it's an iissue that needs to get fixed, not a missing feature one wishes it had.
 
dbpaddler said:
...
And to the person who said maybe this phone isn't for the power typer? Get a clue, it's an iissue that needs to get fixed, not a missing feature one wishes it had.
Click to expand...

I disagree. When I said power typist, I meant fast typist, and if the keyboard cannot keep up as designed then it's not for you. Potentially, the software might be able to be modified to improve responsiveness but the hardware has limitation. You might be able to beat a horse into running faster but there is a limit to how fast a horse with four legs can run.
 
I have the same problem and it's driving me crazy! Interestingly enough I've had my phone for about 2 weeks and this problem became noticeable about a week ago. I hope it's a software issue because that means it's fixable!
 
Missing letters should not be happening but if the auto-replace setting worked on keyboard device settings this problem would diminish.

Does anyone know how to get the auto-replace and auto-punctuate to work on the physical keyboard?
 
engineb said:
Missing letters should not be happening but if the auto-replace setting worked on keyboard device settings this problem would diminish.

Does anyone know how to get the auto-replace and auto-punctuate to work on the physical keyboard?
Click to expand...

There are three options from stock settings, language & keyboard, device keyboard.
 
I'm having exactly the same problem with my Samsung Epic. When I type with the hardware keyboard, it misses something like one letter per sentence as I'm typing. The actual letter that is skipped appears to be random, and I'm certain that it's not because I am not pressing the keys firmly enough.

I returned my first Epic for this reason, but now I'm having exactly the same issue with my second one. My guess is that it is a software issue, not a hardware issue.

How can we get Sprint/Samsung to help resolve this?
 
I joined this forum just to reply to this post. This is my 4th epic and I have been having the exact same problem. @badankles A phone with a 1Ghz processor should have a keyboard that is able to keep up with some average typing speeds. I've posted this on other forums and to me it seems like it might be a software issue, or at least I hope it is. An app that might temporarily help the issue is "smart keyboard" it's on the market for 2.99 and I believe there is a free version. It has a great auto-correct for both the virtual and physical keyboards. This can be annoying though because the point of the physical keyboard is to be more precise. I can type much quicker on the virtual one but when I need more accuracy I use the physical and having it auto-correct incorrectly is frustrating.
 
Locane said:
I just got off the phone with Samsung tech support.

They told me they wanted me to mail them the phone so they could "repair" it, and that they had no idea about any issues regarding the keyboard dropping keys at random while you're typing.

I asked the rep if they had some sort of global unresolved ticketing system that they could keep track of issues like this, and she said no. I asked her what happens if I have the issue again after they send me a replacement and at first she told me "That's not possible" and then told me that they would continue to send me replacements until my warranty expired.

Absolutely ****ing useless.

This was after emailing back and forth with their support email service which pawned me off on the phone reps.

I went through a lot of pains to get this phone, and the keyboard being badly engineered is bad enough, but the key drop issue is just absolutely unacceptable, it needs to be fixed.

You guys should call Samsung support and complain about this, maybe if we all call in they'll do something about it.

1-888-987-4357

--Locane
Click to expand...


Called the number, after going through their phone tree they tell you you have to remove the battery to get a number printed on the inside of the phone.

Will try again

My problem is that whenever I use the keyboard the screen goes blank (dark) and the phone is still operational. Before I return it I want to see if there is a setting I am missing, but it didn't do it out of the box. Perhaps I can reset factory settings, I have only been using the damn thing for 2 hours.
 
u think they are going to acknowledge the issue ? this phone has been a major disappointment for this issue alone. the samsung transform, which doesnt even get put on the same level as epic has a keyboard that dont skip a beat .. man id give up a row of keys to have a keyboard that didnt **** up like this one does
 
this issue is really getting to me know as I type more and more on the keyboard. I hope they do acknowledge this issue and hope it gets fixed with a software update. Perhaps later production models don't have this problem??

If the problem persists after froyo, I'll probably exchange it hoping later production models don't have this issue.
 
disabling swype greatly improved my hardware keyboard to the point whre i was making ZERO errors ... bad thing is swype likes to reselect itself .. u will be amazed at the efficiency after u uncheck swype. it may not work on every handset as my #6 it was the fix i liked but #7 still skipped .. im on #8 now and my keyboard is actually prettty damn good with it enabled so far but ive found the errors increase over time .
 
The problem is nobody is going to recognize the problem unless we can reproduce the issue, and on a stock ROM to boot.

If its software or an actual hardware problem, these should cause reproducible errors. And I mean which keys in what order with what timing.

If its actually just random due to low qualilty hardware, Sprint/Samsung will just say you got a bad unit and to replace it. If enough people do this, they will take a second look at it, but I don't think enough people are aware of the issue tfor that to happen.

Also, this may not be accurate but I fel like certain keys are more troublesome than others. I think my "w" fails to register at a higher frequecy

Our best hope is to try to figure out what the problem is. Since its persisted through numerous roms I'm inclined to say its hardware. It also looks like its not very random since many handsets/users have the issue. That's a good start.

I've found that when pressing 2 keys together at the same time the keyboard has a very strong affinity to put the left key first. Even if I sightly time the right key first. The left key is registered first. 3 keystrokes at once also seems to have a set order. I first started to notice this hen I was tesing if letters were being skipped due to my finger sliding onto the key above/below.

Keep testing, let's see if we can figure out why its making errors if its not random (which it could be, but we are sol in that case)
 
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