When you spend a lot of time working at a computer, you can become unreasonably attached to your keyboard. I still lament the loss of an ancient Northgate keyboard I had. Northgate went out of business years ago, but apparently keyboard aficionados still covet them on eBay. I settled into a reasonably nice Keytronic keyboard that I've had for a number of years, but hey, it's still no Northgate.
In any case, when you spend a lot of time with a keyboard, the worst possible thing is for it to not type the character you expect. Recently I got an e-mail with a question from a reader that was filled with hyphens. His keyboard's spacebar key was behaving like a backspace key and deleting what he'd typed. (I thought it was a rather innovative workaround to use the hyphen instead of the spacebar actually.)
I'd never seen a problem like that and unfortunately, I wasn't able to give him any kind of definitive answer. Hardware issues are difficult to troubleshoot unless you are sitting right in front of the computer. But I did give him a few suggestions.
If you have keyboard problems, the first thing to try is unplugging the keyboard and then plugging it back in. Sometimes that will reset everything and restore order to your typing universe.
Along the same lines, keyboards are inexpensive. If you have another keyboard lying around, you can try plugging it in instead of the one that is misbehaving. If a different keyboard has the same problem, you now know that the problem is your computer and not the keyboard.
If a different keyboard works, the problem is probably your keyboard. If it's the misbehaving keyboard is the problem, it might be dirty or even dead. Those people who eat at their desks run the risk of filling the keys so full of crumbs and filth that the keyboard won't work anymore. And if you spill something liquid on it, you almost always can kiss it goodbye. Fortunately, keyboards are inexpensive. You can even get them at thrift stores.
If your keyboard swap test shows that the problem is actually your computer, it may be bad news. The problem could be a virus, spyware, or other type of "malware." If you don't have virus checking software and/or a firewall, your odds of getting an Internet virus are high. In really bad infections, unless you are a techno-nerd, it may be simplest to take your computer in for professional servicing, clean up, and virus removal. |
