Keyboard Repair

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My precious ergonomic keyborad has fucked up- the space bar doesn't work, and now makes a sad clicking sound in the processor/tower bit, y'know. Caps lock/num lock don't work either. (What does num lock do anyway?) Is there anything I can try to fix it? I HATE this stupid REGULAR one that came w/the computer.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Numlock changes the keys on the right of your keyboard from being numbers 0-9 to Home, Page Up, End etc.

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 15:09 (twenty-three years ago)

is it still in warranty? If so RMA it, if not buy a new one.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 15:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Keyboards are difficult to fix and usually cheap to buy new, so I'd get a new one, but I don't know how much more expensive ergonomic ones are.

(Numlock does what Madchen says and stops badly-written games which use the numeric keypad working until you toggle it. If this starts being a problem it's easy to write some VB to toggle it, so there must be freeware utilities that'll do it for you, or you can change its default state in the Windows registry somewhere.)

― Rebecca (reb), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 15:57 (twenty-three years ago)

.....and if all ense fails, you can always call Money Mark.

― lol p xx, Tuesday, 19 November 2002 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

^ense^else

― lol p xx, Tuesday, 19 November 2002 16:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I just dropped some of my Snickers into my keyboard. It doesn't seem to be having any ill effects yet. Unlike the time it exuded peppermint tea for weeks.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Am now imagining Archel crouched over keyboard nibbling Snickers like a wickle squirrel. What a nice thought to take home.

Anyway, buy a new one. Keyboards are way too easy to damage irreparably.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 16:45 (twenty-three years ago)

if it's buzzing (the tower is) then it sounds like the key is stuck down, maybe open up the keyboard to see if this is the case?

― paulj (paulj), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 23:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Are there any tools for extracting dust and grime from in between keys? we are shortly to be moving offices and in the new building they will have this rule that says NO HOT FOOD TO BE EATEN AT YOUR DESK, but it tends to be the cold food which does the damage. Speshly biscuits.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 23:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Numlock changes the keys on the right of your keyboard from being numbers 0-9 to Home, Page Up, End etc.

yes, I know this. But why would anyone want to? Other than to play a trick on a gullible colleague by switching it off.

What i want to know is, how do you control whether Num Lock is on automatically when you log in (v. useful if your password is actually a passwordandnumbers)? Is it in that dreaded zone known as VER REGISTRY?

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 23:31 (twenty-three years ago)

sammidges are worse surely - or rather their oh-so gooey and yummy cranberry related fillings

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 00:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Did you go to Pret yesterday Mark?

― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 00:17 (twenty-three years ago)

is the sea salt?

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 00:30 (twenty-three years ago)

actually haha no, cz today = wed, and i wz "working at home" yesterday

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 00:30 (twenty-three years ago)

does anyone know the answer to my question about Numlock? I have two pooters on my desk. The Windows NT one has the NumLock on automatically on login, the Windows 2000 one has it switched off at login. 'Tis strange.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 09:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's that bit as the computer is starting up where they tell you to hit any key. I just called helpdesk - they were grateful for an easy way to waste time.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 12:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Sigh. Maybe I'll just hope to find another one outside a shop.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 12:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, you know what? It's not possible to call our helpdesk anymore. You actually have to open up the web browser, log in and type your problem into a comments box and (in theory) they get back to you. What happens when you can't actually switch the computer on because of a fault is something no-one in IT seems to have considered.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 12:11 (twenty-three years ago)

doesn't quite sound like what you want, but close:

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBA/tip0000/rh0023.htm

0023 » NUMLOCK at startup.
Edit:

HKEY_Current_User\ControlPanel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators

Type REG_SZ:

If set to 0, NumLock is disabled for that current user after logging on. If it is 2, NumLock is enabled and will retain the settings from the last shutdown.

― koogs, Wednesday, 20 November 2002 13:27 (twenty-three years ago)

HKEY_Current_User should fix it after you've logged in but not at the login screen. Try HKEY_USERS\.Default\ControlPanel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators. Or you could try adding "numlock=off" to your config.sys. I'm sure there's another registry key for numlock too because I changed it to off on startup (mm roguelike addiction) and I used the registry rather than config.sys but I haven't changed that entry.

(You mean people actually use them to type numbers on instead of using the main set of numbers? Or are we talking laptops? People turn it ON instead of sighing and turning it off so the diagonals make sense in games?)

― Rebecca (reb), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 18:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks Rebecca, your latter suggestion has worked! I'm always impressed by ppl who are able to probe the inner secrets of VER REGISTRY.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 November 2002 09:01 (twenty-three years ago)

but mark, where is this any key you mention above? also thanks for asking this, as i've been wondering myself as mine is also set to off :)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 21 November 2002 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

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