A friend of mine has a machine with an issue I have not seen before. He has a Dell system running Win XP Home and the KB is acting strange. Even though the key delay in Windows is set for normal function, you have to hold each key down for a second in order for it to provide a character. In addition (and this is the really strange part), with each key press there is a single loud click coming from the HDD. This has been experienced with the old KB, as well as two new ones, so the KB is most likely ruled out now. I have not gotten my hands on the system yet, but I do trust the person providing the system info. the HDD sound seems like it might be the feared "tick of death", but I have never seen the KB act this way without being affected by software.