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In my Lenovo 520, I have found that hitting Tab kills the audio. This happens also with tilde (~), Caps Lock, and Shift. This happens if I hit the keys with normal force but if I press them very lightly, the problem does not occur.

The "Play" indicator does not stop; the seconds continue ticking away in iTunes as it shows the song playing; changing the volume makes no difference.

These keys have not become some sort of mapped "speakers off" key. My "speakers off" key works fine. Rather this seems like a hardware problem: Those keys turn off the audio with a tiny buzz-click sound.

But, it also has aspects of a software problem.

In iTunes, I can restart the application to make the audio return.. In Windows Media Player, all I need to do is play a different song. For YouTube in Chrome, reloading starts the audio again.

What's going on?

Joshua Fox
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    How hard are you hitting the keys? – Oliver Salzburg Jul 05 '12 at 21:20
  • Does your keyboard have a key to switch off the audio? If so, this is probably the same problem as the one described in [Keyboard acting wierdly : Virus or Hardware issue?](http://superuser.com/questions/428603/keyboard-acting-wierdly-virus-or-hardware-issue). – Dennis Jul 05 '12 at 21:23
  • Is it [this](http://ii.alatest.com/product/full/0/b/Lenovo-Thinkpad-EDGE-E520-1.jpg)? If so, there are no media keys on the left, so it can't be that a wire in the keyboard is short-circuiting. What happens if you press the keys lightly? Does it happen if you press the keys next to those? Does it happen by itself at all? – Synetech Jul 05 '12 at 21:24
  • Also, did you try if pressing the key again turns the audio back on? @Synetech: In your screenshot, disable audio is `[Fn]+[F1]`. – Dennis Jul 05 '12 at 21:25
  • @Dennis, yes, but that is not a dedicated media key like [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ButkCfDepSY/TBFIwaiJGcI/AAAAAAAAADg/jk-xwXG6VyM/s1600/DSCN0134.JPG) (some keyboards have them on the left-hand side). `Fn+F1` is a combo so, it cannot be caused by a short-ciruit (at least not in the lines; and a short-circuit in the keyboard controller would likely have more effects than just muting). – Synetech Jul 05 '12 at 21:40
  • @OliverSalzburg , Synetech Good question. This does not occurs when I press the keys very lightly, and does occur when I press the keys a bit harder -- with what I consider normal force. This makes it seem a hardware problem. – Joshua Fox Jul 06 '12 at 05:31
  • @Synetech , Dennis These keypresses are not simulating the speakers-off key or the like. The dedicated speaker-off button, which is indeed just to the right of Esc, still works as it is supposed to. – Joshua Fox Jul 06 '12 at 05:34
  • @Dennis Pressing these keys again does not turn audio back on. But note that starting a different song (not restarting the same one) turns on the audio in Windows Media Player. This does not work in iTunes, where restarting the application turns on the audio again. – Joshua Fox Jul 06 '12 at 05:35
  • Hmm, I have heard of something like this before. With some laptops, if you play a sound that the audio-adapter/speaker cannot handle, it makes a loud chirping sound like the speaker just blew out, and then there is no sound from anything anymore. However, when you reboot (or possibly other circumstances), the sound plays again as though nothing happened. Are you sure it is *only* when those keys are pressed, or could it be when some sound is played? – Synetech Jul 06 '12 at 15:56
  • @Synetech It's definitely when the keys are pressed. The problem is quite reproducible. Also, I don't think I've played any unusual sounds on this new laptop. – Joshua Fox Jul 06 '12 at 16:21

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