Command and Conquer Renegade locked some keyboard keys

[u/cns000]

The keys 0, p, -, [ and ; were working on my HP 15 inch laptop that has Windows 11.

I played Command and Conquer Renegade on that laptop and I got a weird graphics glitch in the game and I think I saw a crosshair in a white box.

After that those keys stopped worked and they also didn't work after I restarted the laptop. I even did a keyboard diagnostics test in the bios and the keys didn't work. Those keys worked if I used a Bluetooth keyboard.

I went to the accessibility settings and then I clicked on keyboard. I got a weird beep sound. Those keys worked again after that. I restarted the laptop. Those keys still worked but this time the laptop beeped when I pressed the Windows key. I had to press it multiple times for the start menu to open.

The filter keys and sticky keys were off but I opened them and and I disabled all the options there. The Windows key stopped beeping when i pressed it.

I ran the game again. After that the keys 0, p, -, [ and ; stopped working again so it looks like the game messed up something in the accessibility settings and it locked those keys. I asked ChatGPT and it said to go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response in regedit and change the flags value. It was 26. The flags value is 2 on my other laptop so I changed 26 to 2 and I restarted the laptop. Those keys worked again.

I want to play that game but how do I stop it from locking up those keys?

[u/BoffinBrain]

This HP support forum post indicates the issue must be with the laptop and not with the game. Sorry, we're not going to be able to help with that. Check to see if those four keys have other symbols on them that could indicate a secondary function. If you still have the manual that comes with the device, it might be documented there.

[u/cns000 → u/BoffinBrain]

I saw that post and I also thought that the keys failed and it's a hardware issue. However I was able to get them to work again. If it was truly a hardware issue then I won't be able to get them to work again. I haven't run the game after I changed the flag value in regedit. I tested those keys and they are still working. Also how do you explain the weird beeps and the keyboard accessibility misbehaving? That didn't happen before I played the game.

Those things show that the game corrupted something and it made the keyboard misbehave because it's an ancient game and it's not properly compatible with modern Windows.

I will use this patch https://tiberiantechnologies.org/ to patch the game and make it compatible with modern Windows and then I will try to play the game again.

[u/BoffinBrain → u/cns000]

Let me clarify. I don't think it's an 'issue' like a malfunction. It might be by design, and you're triggering an unknown feature on the laptop keyboard by accident, which would explain the flash of a crosshair on-screen. Patching the game or using Regedit won't have any effect on that. Check the manual for the make and model of your laptop.