Tech: Crazy keyboard

Subject: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: kendall
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 08:24 AM

There are at least a few people in the Mudcat who know a lot more about this computer thing than I do, so, here's what I ran into yesterday:

I got an email from a friend, and when I typed my answer, all that showed on the screen was a line of meaningless letters. If I typed a C it showed as y and so on. It would not print the same letter I typed. Finally, I turned the computer off and re booted. Now it's back to normal. Any idea?

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Becca72
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 08:30 AM

Gremlins. Definitely gremlins.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 08:30 AM

Pixies did it.......
Quack!
Geoff.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: JudyB
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 08:52 AM

I do have trouble telling pixie effects from gremlin effects, so I won't get into the cause. Your solution was the correct one - when something really odd is going on, rebooting the computer is usually the best thing to try first.

Glad it's all nryyrt mpe!

JudyB

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:07 AM

As we all know, everything done by computers ultimately comes down to binary code - nothing but ones and zeros. Zeros, being round, bounce off each other fairly easily. But ones have a tendency to get tangled up and form little "logjams" in the wires. When you turn your computer off and back on, the rush of current clears the jam.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:14 AM

So that's the answer, Kendall, stop eating jam on your toast at the computer.

(If the problem happens again, you might want to scan the computer for any bugs you've picked up, but also if you might want to visit the computer or keyboard manufacturer and see if they have any software updates you can download and install for the keyboard.)

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: MMario
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:17 AM

Bee-dubya-ell pretty much has the answer correct. Of course, sometimes the gremlins and/or pixies CAUSE the ones to logjam - but that is another issue.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: jacqui.c
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:18 AM

The keyboard was fine - we went into word and the letters were OK. I even cut and pasted text from word into an email and it came out OK. He just couldn't type directly into an email without ending up with gobbledegook.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:18 AM

I can't figure out how to do it in WinXP, but in Win98, it was relatively easy to change the keyboard setup. It was a [shift][something else] combination. You might have hit some keys accidentally.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: kendall
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:20 AM

It's ok now, so I won't worry about it until it happens again. Thanks for the input.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: MMario
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:31 AM

there is a possibility there was a java script or some other "execute on open" attached to and/or part of the email that caused this. As the symptom disappeared with a reboot it was probably something harmless.

Some bells and whistles that people use on their e-mails can cause some pretty wierd results when recieved by people with higher levels of security that don't allow such things to autoexecute.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: JudyB
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:10 AM

And following up on SRS's suggestion (with tongue only half in cheek) it really is a good idea to turn the keyboard upside down and shake gently occasionally, to remove the toast crumbs and any stray 1s and 0s that might have gotten stuck there....

JudyB

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Kaleea
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:38 AM

I think the gremlins visited me last night, cause as I was typing, my puter shut down. I could see the little green light on in the front of the hard drive, but it made the sound of shutting down, & the monitor went "to sleep." I turned it off & it came back on. This happened a couple of weeks ago, too.   I have firewalls, & norton & a couple of adware removal thingies that I run scans with everyday.   whasssuuup?

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: MMario
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:44 AM

mu suspicion would be a voltage variance caused it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:57 AM

Or it could be a symptom of an impending crash, especially if you start getting messages that say something like "The system has recovered from a serious error". Make sure you have backups of anything important.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 01:42 PM

Nothing like our local clowns who annoy the non touch-typers by swapping the plastic covers on the 'm' & 'n' keys so that when you finally look up from what you've typed there are several glaring errors.
It cam take a while for it to simk im what has happemed!

CHEERS

Migel

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Bert
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 02:15 PM

When anything odd starts happening, do a fresh back up immediately.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 05:31 PM

That saves the problem, also, so don't save it over the top of your last good backup, make a new one. That way you can go further back if you need to (or if the XP save points are dead in the water, etc.)

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Bert
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 05:38 PM

Yes, SRS, you're right. I only save my own personal data and reload any software from scratch.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: Jon W.
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 05:53 PM

Sometimes HTML from an original email carries over into the reply for some reason - Outlook and Outlook Express both seem to have this problem.

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:12 PM

Jon W -

In Outlook Express you can choose whether the original message is included with a Reply. (Tools|Options|Send) If you check "Send original message with reply" the complete sequence of all mail for the subject can be kept together in the latest pass when you're discussing a subject, so it sometimes is a "feature" and not a problem. If you uncheck the box, only your reply gets sent. My recollection is that attachments are omitted with a "reply,"
or you can manually remove them and attach other items if wanted.

You can also choose to "Forward" the received mail back to the sender, and can include the attachments that were with the original message you received.

If you receive/send unwanted "extras" it's because you or your correspondent(s) aren't using the intentional features of the program in the ways intended.

I assume that Outlook has the same capability, but haven't looked at it recently.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:18 PM

Do not know your system...but probably the old adage of "buffer overflow."

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Tech: Crazy keyboard
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:38 PM

The usual suspect for a keyboard malfunction is corruption of the RAM section where the keyboard buffer lives. This can happen if another program overwrites part of the buffer. Deliberate "overstuffing" a buffer is a common way of exploiting vulnerabilities to get malware on a computer, but the keyboard buffer space is "reserved" so it's unlikely that malware would access that region of memory.

It occasionally can happen with an intermittent connection of the keyboard. A wiggly connector, or a cable that the cat's chewed on can do it.

Some "modern keyboards" have bunches of extra switches and rollers and cranks for doing exotic things. Any "stuck" key, or a noisy pot on a scroll wheel, or a bit of fur and feathers in the optical path of one, could be a cause.

Wireless and/or USB keyboards require drivers that sometimes have problems that seem a bit like "memory leakage" where the buffer isn't cleared completely when it should be, so the next keystroke isn't properly read by the driver.

USB keyboards may have a problem similar to one found with USB mouses, where an input while the computer is entering a "sleep" or "standby" mode doesn't get completely transmitted. When the computer is called back to active mode the USB drive can't be properly initialized because it's still "waiting" for the rest of the previous input.

But mostly it's pixies, elves, and gremlins, or fat 0s and bent 1s.
I think I've also heard of "wrinkly 0s" that don't flow well. The cure suggested was to breath fumes of your favored (and best) beverage across the keyboard to "plump up the 0s." It may not work for the keyboard; but might make the driver happier.

John