Keyboard problem

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chuckphd53
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Keyboard problem

Post by chuckphd53 »

Sent: 23 Feb 2021 23:50
From: RiverBoa99

Chuck,

Any idea how to resolve keyboard issues? I've got a few games that just screech beep at me when I hit the keyboard, although the mouse works just fine. This is in CGA or Tandy-16 mode.

I've heard there was a program to resolve the issue, and it helped with the double press in Edit.com too.



Are you using the Jr keyboard, because I do,know that the Infra red sensor has issues with speed and sensitivity
especially when using low batteries.

can you give more details?
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RiverBoa99
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Re: Keyboard problem

Post by RiverBoa99 »

It's not an infared issue. It works flawlessly in all the native PCjr and many more of the other apps.

I was playing a game that I wanted my daughter to try called Super Solvers: Treasure Mountain. It will run natively on PCjr, and will run TGA with a command line tag of -t. It just won't recognize any keyboard input. I can get into the game using a serial mouse, but no arrow or enter keys register, and when they are pressed, I get the stuck key screeching sound from the PC speaker.

I get a similar sound from the 100,000 Pyramid from Sharedata. So I think it might be software related.

But it's not every game/application. Just a few.

I've read on a few forums about programs that resolve a double input problem in Edit.com, which I thought might be the case here, but I can't find the NOBEEP or JRHOTKEY programs mentioned on the Brutman forums. Apparently they help with a few of these issues.
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chuckphd53
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Re: Keyboard problem

Post by chuckphd53 »

I have a Jr -> PS2 keyboard adapter that may work.

I am not sure but it sounds like the game may be looking for 'different' key codes from the keyboard interrupt instead of bios in some manner..
if you switch to a PS2 type keyboard, maybe ??? it might work !

just a guess....

thoughts'
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KenEG
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Re: Keyboard problem

Post by KenEG »

The keyboard interface of the JR is different than on the IBM PC and compatibles. Software that uses the BIOS routines should work fine, but any software that tries to read the keyboard directly will fail. I think one of the differences is the interrupt used (NMI vs int1), so any software that tries to read the keyboard by redirecting the interrupt will fail. Please see this.

IBM PCjr Keyboard Handling - Brutman
https://www.brutman.com/PCjr/pcjr_keybo ... dling.html
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