My Annoying Computer

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I think the keyboard of my graphite iBook is fucked - it only honours the 'shift' command when it feels like it; I always have to check whether it's capitalised what I wanted it to.

Any suggestions for home repair? I want to clean it somehow without damaging it.

― suzy, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

aaaaarghhhh ee cummings-style new answers. shift, dammit, shift!

― suzy, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

why on earth would you want to capitalize anything suzy?

― gareth, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

JUST BECAUSE, OKAY?

anyway it's not so much the caps as the punctuation demands i make on the machine.

― suzy, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

an iBook's a laptop, right? on my laptop the keys just come off if you pull carefully, and you can clean out all the old hairs, crumbs etc that find their way under the keys

― michael, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

mind you if the actual switch needs cleaning it's going to be tricky on a laptop. often the keyboard is part of the main circuit board.

― michael, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I once spilt a glass of water on my laptop keyboard. I now use it to prop open doors.

― Samantha, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You can just pull them off on an iBook, but be careful because the clips that hold them on are VERY sensitive. It's probably just got something caught underneath it from a particular exciting bout of interweb gastroporn.

― Graham, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You can also replace the entire keyboard on an iBook if need be. Hell, just get a brand new one! I so, so badly want to replace my tangerine one with a new one so I can get an iPod, which I lust for. Too bad the first generation ones didn't come with FireWire.

― Sean, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I just gave my iBOOK for an OS X update so I could get on the net with DSL (which yes I can already do with OS 9 but y'know...). So the guy at the comp shop promised to update it all. He fekking DELETED my DSL connection. Bastard. But knock on wood my laptop hasn't freezed (frozen?) yet. heh. Oh yeah and there's a crack in it! My parents got the new superstylish iMAC (with DVD WRITER!). And an iPOD. Grrrr.

― nathalie, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I need to mention again that I'm obsessed with owning a shiny new iBook (with CD WR-DVD, natch) and iPod... it's gnawing at my conciousness like an obnoxious puppy. I'm just like everyone else, victimized by the media into wanting things I don't need! I've managed over the last year or so to pay down my debt to where I can actually imagine it being completely gone sometime soon, and here I go wanting to spend over $2000 on this stuff... help! Seriously, I need someone to talk me out of it pronto.

On a related note, anyone want to buy a pre-FireWire tangerine iBook loaded with graphics apps and Office? Original box, manuals, discs, etc. $500 takes it.

No, no forget it, I'm not buying a new iBook, I'm not!!!

― Sean, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Was that a graphite iBook suzy? Ooh! Well done!

― Mark C, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, just prise off the shift key and clean under it, then snap it back into place.

I recall some real problems with my first Apple laptop, a Duo Dock, back in 1993. The keyboard got unresponsive in time. I replaced it and the same thing happened after a few months. In those days such glitches could be terminal. It's capital that now they pose a lower case of problem.

― Momus, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oooooh! S-t-r-r-retch for the play on words! Very punny, etc.

I did this and it's *still* playing up. Just slightly less than it was. But it's only the shift key.

― suzy, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

I have an original clamshell iBook 300. I have the same issue with the shift key...but only the right one. The left one works just fine.

Guess I just have to adjust my typing! ;o)

Cory

― Cory Cooper, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four weeks pass...

You could always plug in an external keyboard, when you're not using it on the road. You could probably pick up one of those terrible small keyboards that came with the original iMac for really cheap, but those tend to get keys stuck (my brother and my mom each have one, and each one has one of their arrow keys stuck). Macally also makes Apple-style USB keyboards, and there's always the Apple Pro Keyboard.

― Luca Rescigno, Saturday, 15 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Doesn't it have two shift keys anyway? Are they both out of order?

― toraneko, Saturday, 15 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seven years pass...

I turn my computer on - starts up - no desktop picture, no itunes, no firefox, no pictures in the picture file, no docs on the doc file. Have I been attacked my a malicious but very picky virus? It's all backed up (except itunes playlists). More irritating than disastrous, but still WHY?

― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 21 May 2010 07:57 (fifteen years ago)

Sounds like you've got a problem with your profile so have been logged in with a new profile.

― Jarlrmai, Friday, 21 May 2010 09:39 (fifteen years ago)

it's on a fucking computer. give it a break.

alternatively i'd say: fuck windows.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 21 May 2010 09:40 (fifteen years ago)

Jarlrmai - I think this is the problem. "It" seems to have opened up a temp. profile for me when I restarted this morning. Any ideas what i do though? Googling has not been too much help (but fuck me do people have a lot of computer problems...)

― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 21 May 2010 10:08 (fifteen years ago)

Depends usually a reboot resolves this one when it happens to me, or a system restore.

You can create a new profile and then copy the stuff you need out of your old profile if you want.

― Jarlrmai, Friday, 21 May 2010 10:35 (fifteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.