DKC Atlas Forum

[Simion32]

[#1] Can't Press Particular Keyboard Keys at the Same Time
Can't Press More Than # of Keyboard Keys at the Same Time
Summary: Keyboard Hardware Limitation
Reason(s): Very old keyboards used to be able to detect all key presses at the same time, but manufacturing keyboards back then was expensive - so somebody decided to cut corners, and now we have to live with the crappy manufacturing processes which are used on modern keyboards. To save on circuit wire, the designers of today's keyboards decided to use a grid-based approach where any 2 wires being activated indicates a key press - but this means that, in a lot of cases, it's impossible to know which keys are pressed. This means that you cannot detect all keys on the keyboard at the same time. A large number of keys may conflict or cancel out other keys.
Fix(es): There aren't going to be any fixes short of a law being passed to force manufactured keyboards to be of better quality.
Workaround(s): The only way to press all (or a lot of) the buttons at the same time, is to use a gamepad/joystick device. You can also get one of those super expensive professional gaming keyboards that support pressing lots of keys (if you have tons of money to throw around, that is).

[#2] Gamepad is Not Recognized Every Time you Restart or Unplug Controller (DELTA)
Two of the Same Kind of Gamepad are Confused or Mixed-Up by Games
Summary: USB Hardware Requirements Flaw
Reason(s): This happens because your gamepad was made without any kind of identifier chip (like a digital bar code, kind of) that lets the computer know "who" that device is (just like we humans use names to identify each other). The people who made the USB specification decided not to make unique device identifiers mandatory - so there are manufactures out there who cut corners and don't give their game controllers an ID chip. Multiple gamepads that don't have a real ID may become "player swapped" and/or loose their settings. Since it's impossible to track such a no-ID controller for longer than the controller has power, it is also impossible to keep button configuration settings that can be automatically used for playing games with that particular controller. The same issue can also happen if two controllers that have an ID have the same ID number. Windows tries to make it easier on game makers by at least giving the controller a random fake ID, but again, this fake ID only lasts until the controller is unplugged or the power is turned off. The best that can be done is to try to detect the brand of controller it is, but even this information may be missing in very cheap game controllers.
Fix(es): Cannot be fixed. Can only be partially mitigated by programmers.
Workaround(s): You might possibly want to try using a different brand or model of gamepad/joystick.

[#3] Seesaw-like CPU Spike Behaviors
Summary: USB Hardware Driver Bug
Reason(s): Incorrectly enumerated USB devices or hubs can cause a CPU spike in explorer.exe or another system process every second or so, causing a seesaw-like usage percentage behavior.
Fix(es): This can be solved by unplugging and replugging the offending devices to force Windows to properly enumerate them and stop the infinite detection loop.