Not necessarily a brand related issue, regardless what the microsoft haters say - and the problem is not NECESSARILY the keyboard. It could be the interface constantly sending a signal to the keyboard keeping it turned on. Did you try using the interface from the older keyboard??
As for why use a wireless keyboard? It keeps the desk area uncluttered and generally is just a lot neater.
Keyboard with a switch IS a better way to go - and the bluetooth stuff IS coming down in price to the point it is a viable option.
MOST current cordless keyboards are RF, not IR
If no keys have been pressed after a while, it should be asleep.
Leave it to microsoft to design a keyboard whose sleep timer is disfunctional. You can set it next to your windows PC whose monitor fails to shut off 20% of the time. Creating a timer and reliably counting down to turn off a monitor is beyond microsoft's technical skills. I wouldn't expect them to be able to do it on a keyboard either.
You can buy an ir detector for a few dollars at any electronics parts store. It's basically a business card with a little ir sensitive patch in the middle that glows red when IR hits it.
What he means is, I think, that if there is a transmitter that has it's own wall wart, that plugs into the PC , or if your PC maintains power to the USB ports even when it is 'shut down' (but is really just in standby mode), the transmitter end could be continually polling the keyboard and keeping it active. A lot of PCs, like a lot of TVs, aren't really OFF unless you yank the plug out of the wall.
ote:
Yup... Your computer fails to "shut off" by going into the sleep mode because some update is processing and interrupting that process midstream would corrupt files and settings on your system that you would not be able to recover from without a wipe and reinstall...
~~ Evan
I bought one of those at Radio Shack 10+ years ago. Very handy. I don't think Radio Shack sells them anymore, it was too good a product so they stopped carrying it.
If there isn't a human pressing keys, the keyboard should be asleep. Status LEDs are usually on the receiver for a good reason.
A bluetooth keyboard has a thousand times the sophistication of the typical IR keyboard and they're smart enough to sleep when not in use. Why not a rock stupid IR keyboard? Truly, time to switch brands.
Or maybe they changed windows so it doesn't let the keyboard sleep right anymore. You know, one of those "auto-updates" windows is so fond of.
Unless that windows box is connected to a robot arm that is pressing keys, that is totally irrelevent. A keyboard that isn't being used has no business draining a battery. If it is, the design is crap.
I've seen plenty of remote controls that had to be replaced because they would intermittantly start transmitting random signals without being touched.
A lot? Virtually every desktop system built in the last 15 years or more (since the advent of the ATX standard)
It didn't use batteries, so why sell it?
It used to work, so it's not really a "design" issue - sounds like a "failure" issue. With the transciever interface REMOVED from the computer see if the battery still goes dead. If so it is LIKELY a popped capacitor in the keyboard.
One of mine has both a "soft" power switch, and a "hard" power switch. I've seen quite a few others like that. It is about 3 or 4 years old.
Broken s*it.
Yeah. So what?
Exactly!
On a very old TV, with a remote control (a motor to change the channels, ca chunk, ca chunk). It started going on and off and changing channels by itself. Finally I figured it out (I was about age 10). Something on the vacuum cleaner was the cause. The wheels on the vacuum cleaner had a high pitched squeal, and I suppose a higher pitched one we couldn't hear, and the remote signal was an ?ultra high frequency sound. I oiled the wheels of the vacuum and it fixed the TV.
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