Oh no – in the middle of typing, my ” ” key hs stopped working – pple, prtment, rdvrk, Kty, Broque, ineed, it is broken. But this is computer, so therefore it is not “broken” s we might know it – i.e., in terms of being something you could simply fix. First it strted mking rows nd rows of itself spontneously – then ffixing iself to every other letter I typed – so tht, using one I’ve copied to pste in for effect, I cn show you it might hve looked “like this”: aliakaae atahaisa.
I’ve closed nd restrted Firefox, nd tried it out in Word – it isn’t working in Word or on my notepd. I rebooted the whole computer nd it isn’t working. Should I reinstll Office? Might tht work? No, it’ll hve to be the operting system.
It’s like in the seventies, when the feminists found they could fix under the bonnet (or hood) themselves despite everything… well I’m not afraid of no computer.
I must go home nd try it. I cnnot be pying to get my lptop fixed.I cnnot be hving to pste in the a every time I need to use it.
Pain in arse.
12 Comments
January 27, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Bloody poet – no nous!
Try gently lifting the key and blowing sharply underneath it in order to remove any dust/fluff that may be breaking the electrical contact. If that fails, slowly prise the key top off completely, take note of how the underlying mechanism is laid out, and give it a good clean. Then snap the key top back on. Self-cleaning of malfunctioning computer keyboards will work in the vast majority of cases.
My invoice is in the post.
January 27, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I had a sticky backspace key once. Bloody pain that was. Type a whole paragraph only to see it vanish when I absent-mindedly tried to delete one tiny error.
January 27, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hi guys. On the big computer now. Andy, that sounds terrible. And Francis, thank you so much but I tried that and it was no use – I really think it’s software-related, especially as the a’s were suddenly appearing when I was typing some letter at the other end of the keyboard – not right after typing an a – and manufacturing huge rows of themselves when I wasn’t even touching the keyboard. It doesn’t feel stuck. I did pry it loose and blow under it. God I hate this. It’s so BORING.
January 27, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Then clean out *all* the caches and reboot. You should do this periodically anyway, including cookies, etc. Given that you use a Mac, the best tool for this purpose is Onyx:
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_leopard.html
It’s freeware.
You cannot damage your system with Onyx, but you are advised to RTFM (read the fucking manual) before using it.
If Onyx doesn’t fix the problem, either your installed operating system is irredeemably corrupt, and you’ll require a clean install of everything (after first backing up your user folder), or it’s a hardware fault.
January 27, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Okay Francis, thank you, I am now running Onyx. I had to change my password, because the installer required me to enter it – but fortunately, because the installer wouldn’t, the control panel let me paste in the a! Then I discovered my c and e had frozen up too. so had to make a completely random new password out of whatever was working.
I tell you what. And I’ve also just spent well over an hour cleaning the kitchen – all but the floor, which will take another hour – after not being home for three days.
Then I have to take out the recycling, and go to the supermarket and carry the heavy bags of shopping back up the hill, following all of which I get to make the dinner – and do the floor! I just don’t know. And I can still foresee a scenario where I have to a) reinstall my OSX, b) go all over the internet trying to find things out, and c) throw things around the house.
Okay, here’s the action reporting. Onyx seems alike a very powerful and serious thing. I just “cleaned” my cookies and internet caches, and also my system, font, application caches – using my crazy new password (hey!). The laptop is restarting now and it is quite scary…
January 27, 2009 at 4:40 pm
No a. In fact, no a, c, d, e, s, w, 2, or 3.
Am going through Onyx functions, Tiger at the ready.
January 27, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Do a hardware test before an O/S reinstall. Insert the OS X DVD, and boot holding down the D key (it may work at this stage). A full hardware test takes a long time, especially when it includes a RAM memory diagnostic (recommended). Be patient.
Possible hardware faults include the ribbon that connects the keyboard to the logic board, defective RAM (highly unlikely now) and the logic board.
January 27, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I thought it was bad not being able to use my R key on my new-ish laptop! As always, I am humbled.
January 27, 2009 at 6:42 pm
But Don, it does sound bad. Can you take it back? If mine was even anywhere near new-ish, like if I hadn’t got it off eBay two years ago, I’d be taking it back…
Francis, thank you thank you, I will set all that to do while I am cooking. All the kids have pissed off now anyway – I’m only cooking for me. And they ask why I cook with wine.
January 28, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Hi Francis. Well I have tried this about 15 times. My D key isn’t working, of course, but the startup disk says to hold down the option key. No use. I’ve tried it with D anyway, and with alt, and with option, about a million times, but it just keeps going into OSX. Should I just resinstall and hope for the best? If it doesn’t work they can presumably run a diagnostic at the shop…
January 28, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Are we talking about your old iBook?
You could try opening the case and checking the ribbon cable that joins the keyboard to the computer’s motherboard. And also see if there’s any more cleaning you can do with the machine disassembled.
If that doesn’t work, then I’m afraid I have no further suggestions. If the problem is serious and hardware-related, then the repair bill could run to several hundreds if you took the laptop to an Apple Store. An independent computer technician would probably be a better bet for an old machine out of warranty.
January 30, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Sounds like you’re a “do-it-yourself” type of gal! Would you be brave enough to pry open your system? Perhaps, it’s just loose wiring…
But don’t blame me if everything crashes altogether!