Keyboard problem

[flhiii]

I've had my desktop for about 5 years (DELL Dimension 4100) and in the past couple weeks the keyboard has been acting strangely. When I press the UP arrow instead of just registering up, I get a couple letters and slash (/) as well as UP and Delete. The problem went away when I restarted, originally, but quickly returned. Now when I restart, or shut down and let it sit for a few minutes, it doesn't really help at all. It's quite annoying when I try to flip through e-mails without using the mouse. I haven't loaded any new software on it in quite some time, so I don't know how this problem manifested. I'd love to reload the keyboard driver if only I could figure out how. Any other solutions are greatly appreciated.

[eyeball]

is it a ps2 or usb keyboard?

Edited August 21, 2007 by eyeball

[flhiii]

is it a ps2 or usb keyboard?

PS/2

[puntoMX]

- Swap out the keyboard, they are cheap.

- If that doesn’t help reinstall windows and see if that fixes the problem.

- If both don’t help your motherboard has gone bad.

It could be a virus too or something in windows that is messing it up.

Did you try your keyboard in safe-mode?

[flhiii]

- Swap out the keyboard, they are cheap.

- If that doesn’t help reinstall windows and see if that fixes the problem.

- If both don’t help your motherboard has gone bad.

It could be a virus too or something in windows that is messing it up.

Did you try your keyboard in safe-mode?

Thanks, I'll try safe mode tonight and see if I can get my hands on another keyboard . . . they won't miss the one from work for one night will they?

How much of a pain is it to re-install windows?

[puntoMX]

How much of a pain is it to re-install windows?

Looks like your first time... Ask some one close to you to help you with it, which would be the easy way. Make sure you download your drivers first to install everything in one time, and don’t forget to make a backup!

[flhiii]

How much of a pain is it to re-install windows?

Looks like your first time... Ask some one close to you to help you with it, which would be the easy way. Make sure you download your drivers first to install everything in one time, and don’t forget to make a backup!

I'm not sure I can get someone who knows any more than I do to help me. What drivers do I need to download? And from where?

Backup?

[Polarman]

Did you ever "clean" your keyboard in those 5 years ?

You'd be amazed how much dirt gets under those keys in a year.

If it's too much trouble, you could always get a new one.

[flhiii]

Did you ever "clean" your keyboard in those 5 years ?

You'd be amazed how much dirt gets under those keys in a year.

If it's too much trouble, you could always get a new one.

I don't think this problem is caused by dirt, but you're right it does get rather nasty in there. The IT guy at my high school swore that you could put your keyboard in the dishwasher to get it clean and it would still work afterward. I never tried it. He said he did it whenever someone would puke in a computer class. GROSS

***New symptom, the Caps Lock was briefly producing characters but has stopped now and Num Lock is equivalent to pressing Num Lock and the down arrow and right arrow. WTF?!?!

[puntoMX]

So you did try another keyboard and you get other "things" now?

[nmX.Memnoch]

A five year old keyboard that's been in pretty much constant use? Yeah...you've got five years worth of gunk built up. It's probably time to just replace it anyway.

I have keyboards that are over five years old...but none of them are my primary keyboards. I use them for working on other PCs and such. I'm doing good if my primary keyboard makes it to be 10-12 months old!

[flhiii]

So you did try another keyboard and you get other "things" now?

No that was the same keyboard, i couldn't get another keyboard to test against yet.

In other news, when I tried to start it in safe mode, I was using the up arrow key to scroll through the different safe mode selections and the glitch reared it's head at this point and automatically selected one. I'm sure it was the glitch and not just the countdown clock, cuz I did it quickly and the computer made a beep like I pressed some invalid commands at the same time.

After restarting I was testing it out again in a word document and the up arrow worked for the first few attempts then it pasted a "print screen" image into the word document. It did this a few times then the up arrow started taking my computer to the screen that says "This computer is in use and has been locked". If only I could harness the power of this crazy shortcut.

I'm considering reloading windows, but perhaps a new keyboard might not be such a bad idea, a wireless keyboard perhaps, I love my wireless mouse. I was thinking about it, and I've had this system for 7 years not 5 . . . oops.

[nmX.Memnoch]

In other news, when I tried to start it in safe mode, I was using the up arrow key to scroll through the different safe mode selections and the glitch reared it's head at this point and automatically selected one. I'm sure it was the glitch and not just the countdown clock, cuz I did it quickly and the computer made a beep like I pressed some invalid commands at the same time.

That tells me that this:

I'm considering reloading windows

definitely won't fix the problem. You've just got a dodgy keyboard on your hands. The circuit board in it or some of the traces to the keys are probably just worn out. When you can get a keyboard such as the Microsoft Digital Media Pro for $21.32 shipped, there's no sense in even worrying about the old one.

[flhiii]

In other news, when I tried to start it in safe mode, I was using the up arrow key to scroll through the different safe mode selections and the glitch reared it's head at this point and automatically selected one. I'm sure it was the glitch and not just the countdown clock, cuz I did it quickly and the computer made a beep like I pressed some invalid commands at the same time.

That tells me that this:

I'm considering reloading windows

definitely won't fix the problem. You've just got a dodgy keyboard on your hands. The circuit board in it or some of the traces to the keys are probably just worn out. When you can get a keyboard such as the Microsoft Digital Media Pro for $21.32 shipped, there's no sense in even worrying about the old one.

Good point. Thanks for the advice and product suggestion, but unless I'm mistaken that's not a wireless keyboard.

[nmX.Memnoch]

No it's not...but you are sure that you want a wireless keyboard? I used one at work for a while...changing batteries every couple of months got old quick.