h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a laptop with windows XP when i press certain keys i don't get the letter I want.
eg,
q =8q
return =
#
a=ia
backspace = just doesn't work
k=kz
the oddest one forward arrow =`
help!
of i don't usethe on screen keyboard HIASDW

eitehr that laptop has been mistreated and the keybaroed is f*cked


or someone has stuck a program on it to annoy you ...

Z

I've been having keyboard problems with XP recently and I don't know if it is the keyboard itself or the programme. It keeps freezing up or else, as in your case, giving me other letters than the ones I hit on. And there is a weird buzzing sound accompanying all of this. I end up rebooting and then things go back to normal - for awhile!

az

I've rebooted a couple of times. It's done it before and sort of stopped of it's own accord after a while

I've checked the language settings,

sometimes it goes back to normal for a while

I also do 'Control/Alt/Supr and this often brings things back to normal, though then I get a scary window telling me I shouldn't be doing this, which I ignore.

We could be talking about totally different problems anyhow. Yours could be a programme problem, mine could be a physical keyboard problem. But it's strange we are both having a similar problem.


az

Supr? do you have a Spanish keyboard by any chance?

Z,
Yours does sound remarkably like it is slipping into another language. Mine at work keeps dropping into Netherlands for some reason.

Also, WOrd can do it as well, separately of windows.

Z.

yes, live in Spain, so I have a Spanish keyboard. Which also makes it possible for me to do ¿ and ñ and ¡



Also my Windows XP is in Spanish so I also have problems at times understanding the English translations.

az

Ta for all your help!

I've had a good fiddle with the language settings-and they're all on English. The on screen keyboard is also sillin English which would indicate it's a hardware problem.

Try tunning the laptop upside down and giving it a really good shake. You might be surprised what comes out. Bread crumbs, insects, dead rats.

Sometimes a foreign body can short out one key and pressing another key produces two characters. If its a Dell laptop, removing the keyboard is not to difficult. However, Dell laptops do have metal key contacts and once they are worn there is no alternative but another keyboard.

Donald

Know it's sounds paranoidy but you may also want to run a virus check with the latest definitions if you've not done so already.

Yup! I've done that! I've attached an external keyboard to it, and the flatmate isn't really bothered because he wanted a shiner one anyway. I'm more annoyed because I hate it when things don't work.