Keyboard or software problem?

[killroy420]

Apparently that's the best theory... Search key erroneously activated by software bug.

The OP said that pressing "Q" would bring up the browser I think. Can anyone confirm that Search+Q has that designed functionality?

If so, then it adds more ammo to Search being the key. Pun intended.

Sorry, if I cause some confusion...I said the "Q" + search, but I really was just saying that as a random example because I didn't have my wife's phone on me at the time and couldn't remember exactly which key it was. It was in fact the "E" key that jumped to email settings as another poster pointed out. The rest of the keys had their own shortcuts as well (or were deactivated).

I appreciate everyone's responses on this matter. It does seem to be a software bug, as I have carefully inspected the hardware and found no issues. At this point, I am just waiting and wishing for root and a CM9 port. Our experience with the Epic 4g tells me that it is going to be a long wait for official ICS from Samsung...

 

[KnightCrusader]

Yeah, its a software problem in Android itself, and it happens randomly. It happened to me yesterday, prompting me to reboot.

I used to get the same problem all the time on my Droid 2 running stock Froyo. I wonder if CM7 has this issue or not.... hmmm, I'm gonna check on that.

 

[ruidoso]

So my wife got the Stratosphere on launch, and she has been experience a weird, intermittent problem since about the second week of ownership. The physical keyboard will not type properly, instead certain keys will act like quick launch buttons. For example, q ends up opening a browser. For all of the keys, they get these secondary functions or they don't work at all as they should, until the phone has been reset.

Another issue that happens is the onscreen keyboard loses responsiveness when the above issue happens. It also seems to come back regularly after resets, but we don't know why.

I personally believe this to be a software problem, but is there anything I can do to fix this? Should we just bring it in to Verizon and swap it for a different model? What do you guys think?

 

[ruidoso]

I also have this problem, weird, my keyboard started it in my 2nd week. Certain keys act like hotkeys. Today it's e [launches email] & other keys. Last week, it was t & s. Well, it looks like there's no point in turning it in as a warrenty issue, since it's not just me. Today, I didn't reset, I just exited txt mode...later it was fine. It's worst in email. Others' thoughts, pls??

 

[ruidoso]

The search key on the physical keyboard activates the shortcuts. If it happens again try pressing it instead of hoping into settings and such first.

 

[ruidoso]

Sorry, which is the search key? How can we report this to samsung?

 

[jrh4054]

They key to all this is to just stop using the qwerty keyboard. I ordered the Strat because my feature phone had a slider keyboard, and I liked it. However, after just a few days using the Strat's virtual keyboard with its predictive texting, I realized it was much easier to use, and I shouldn't have gotten the Strat. My biggest objections to the Strat are that it's thick and heavy. I have had none of the problems that I see mentioned on this forum and the VZW Android Community. I have only had one problem that was fixed only by doing a factory reset. I lost my email completely. I couldn't receive or send any emails from any of my accounts. I learned that the problem was caused by app killing software I installed.

 

[reymis1981]

Its usually an easy fix. If you go into applications>manage applications>all then scroll down to android keyboard and clear the cache if its there, otherwise clear the cache on the samsung keypad further down. I had to disable then enable them both first in the language and keyboards menu. Hope this helps, a permanent fix would be nice.

 

[kyleinstyle]

FIX (I hope): go into settings -> applications -> quick launch. press and hold the shortcuts that are lit up, and press "clear"

 

[loudnoises]

(meant to quote as shown below)

 

[loudnoises]

FIX (I hope): go into settings -> applications -> quick launch. press and hold the shortcuts that are lit up, and press "clear"

GENIUS. hope this works!

 

[disneyallclear]

I had the problem and the magnifying glass key was right-on. Thank you!!

 

[Ray Yuen]

I recently bought the Astone A108 media player with inbuilt Android 4.0.4 operating system. This meant I could surf the web on my big screen tv. My problem was the 'remote control' sized qwerty keyboard (Astone R3) air mouse was too small to use efficiently. Our local Dick Smiths (Australia) was selling the Logitech K400R 'full sized' wireless keyboards for only $50.

All was going well but every time I pressed the letter 'e' it would open a email setup program. B opened a browser and P open the media player. The physical keyboard would then become useless as no characters were appearing on the screen and I would have to use the frustrating 'Android Keyboard' (the whole point of buying the Logitech keyboard was to forget the on screen input method). This is well documented as an issue but everyone is saying 'you must be pressing the search button' (accidentally). This definitely wasn't the case for me. It is really annoying as I would have to power down the Astone A108 media player and that somehow reset the 'keyboard shortcuts'. All the forums are written for mobile phones using Android 4.0.4 and telling you to go to settings, applications and turn off the quick launch (not helpful to me as it didn't exist anywhere in my menus).

To make things worse the Logitech support site only has a 'quick setup guide' for the older model K400 (no 'R'). The keys along the top of the model K400R are slightly different and you can probably guess what they do by looking at the icons on the keys i.e. volume mute, volume down and volume up. When I rung Logitech support they were no help and advised me to install their software 'Logitech Setpoint' to customise my keys.

The point for my post? I found the solution and thought I would share with you. There are two keys 'F1' and 'F2'. There is a symbol of a box with an arrow going 'in' and one going 'out'. I found that when the email program was opening after pressing the letter 'e', all you have to do is press 'F1' and that turns off the keyboard shortcuts returning you to the normal keyboard input method.

I saw a Google app called 'Null Input Method' which I will try next to see if that removes the Android (on screen) keyboard and I will be in heaven.

cheers,
Ray

 

[Tahlia Savage]

wont keep its charge

My Samsung stratosphere wont keep its charge and and when I press the e key rites to email what do I do??????

- - - Updated - - -

My Samsung stratosphere wont keep its charge and and when I press the e key rites to email what do I do??????

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Re: wont keep its charge

My Samsung stratosphere wont keep its charge and and when I press the e key rites to email what do I do??????

Can't address the charging issue, but if you read the the thread there are some suggestions that fix the e - email problem. For instance: go into Settings > Applications > Quick launch; press and hold the "e" shortcut and press "clear" to prevent Search+e from starting e-mail. Do likewise for other shortcut keys that are lit up.

 

[AiryC1]

Tried everything listed on this page - still did not work. As a last ditch effort I shut the phone off, removed the battery, let it sit for about 10 seconds and reassembled. The keyboard now works. Also have had the same problem with camera from time to time - need to shut off, remove battery & card - some times more than once then it will work again. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[Courtney Mc]

The actual answer to the question here!

An easy fix! Goto: Settings,applications, then quick launch. Here the quick k eys can be changed or diabled by holding down the selection...the becomes self explanatory. I had to replace my phone once before figuring this one out! Stupid place to put this should be under keyboard settings!

 

[Kevin Clark3]

Totally helped! Thanks!