Spacebar and Esc functions won't work

[Daniel Lindahl]

I have recently noticed that the spacebar will not work as a proxy for the magic wand. It does show the magic wand cursor, but to no effect. This happens in both AC16 and AC17.

Also, the Esc key will sometimes not cancel operations or selections for me in AC16. It works OK in AC17.

Does anyone else have these issues, and any clues to what could be going wrong and how it can be fixed?

I upgraded to this 64bit platform below back in July when AC17 came out, and am wondering if the spacebar problem could be to do with Windows 8 and that I just hadn't noticed until now?

AC17 INT. Dell Inspiron 17R SE i7 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, Windows 8

[Eduardo Rolon]

Have had the spacebar issue, though in Mac OS, a restart fixed it.

[Daniel Lindahl]

Eduardo,
Thanks for the response.
I have had countless restarts, but the problem persists.
At least now I know that its not a Windows 8 problem. I am inclined to blame Windows 8 for ALL my troubles, it is truly schizophrenic compared to reliable old Windows XP 😞

[Marton Kiss]

Daniel,

I recall an issue with an older version of Photoshop running in the background. Many of our users complained about not working ESC and turned out to be an issue with Photoshop. As far as I remember it was CS2 or CS3 version.

Try to close all other applications to see if this is an AC side issue or some other software affects this.

Marton

[Daniel Lindahl]

Marton,

Thanks, that was the solution for the Esc. key! I had Photoshop Elements 3.0 on, when I closed it the Esc. key works again.

That just leaves the problem of not being able to use the spacebar to magic-wand. Not sure why that would be. Fortunately I always keep the Control box docked at the bottom edge so I have the magic wand button there, but still, the spacebar was handy.

[Marton Kiss]

Daniel,

I am glad that we found the source of the ESC part.

As for the spacebar side I only have some ideas:
- try to boot Windows 8 in safe mode, start AC and see if it works - with that we can isolate drivers and other applications that are loaded by default. Here is a guide, as it is not as easy as it was with Xp/7: http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/
- if you have any drivers for the keyboard try to update it - like Logitech Set Point or laptop drivers from manufacturer
- do you have an external keyboard that you can use for a test?

Marton

[Eduardo Rolon]

The spacebar shortcut stopped working again today, no idea why. Restarting AC does not fix, it logging out/in does.

[rob2218]

I get the spacebar not working again.
Has something to do with the "cleaning of the AC prefs" or something but I'm not sure how to fix it.

Mine stopped working too.
Can someone assist?