[NA]this weeks broken com uter art.[NA]

[Let'sgoflying!]

suddenly, I find the letter " " no longer works on this com uter.
I should say, the letter between 'O' and 'Q' because obviously I cannot ty e the letter that is not a earing.

I am quite serious. Everything else is fine. I have tried restarting several times to no avail.

Should I shake or ta on it or something?

I can always ctrl c and ctrl v to get a " " like this: p
(thank goodness the co y function is not "ctrl p" or I would be sol!)

This is not a joke! lease send your suggestions!
I gotta tell ya, I am REALLY, REALLY sick of things, es ecially electronic things, breaking.
Dave

 

[fgcason]

What computer is this? The Laptop Wonder?

Obviously try a restart. Restart meaning complete power down including the plug out of the wall or battery removed. Then start it again.
Try wiggling the key some when pushing down at slightly different angles to see if it will at least intermittently work.
Are any other keys screwed up?

It might be crud on the contacts. (think about how much crud gets between the keys every year)
It might be a bad connection at the plug.
It could be something else.

Start with pulling the plug and cleaning the contacts then plugging it back in.

If that doesn't work:

Take a look at the keyboard by pulling the key cap off carefully. Can you tell if it's a mechanical key switch or if it's the newer type of keyboard that uses a rubber sheet?

If it's the rubber sheet version: Disassemble the keyboard and clean the rubber sheet in the sink and let it dry. Clean the pcboard contacts with isopropyl alcohol. Reassemble and test.

If it's normal mechanical keys, it could get crud on the contact points. I found that dumping isopropyl alcohol into the area of the switch with the contacts and playing with the button at slightly different force angles for a few minutes tends to clean it up.

I've saved many keyboards (actually a few keyboards many times) this way.

That's a start point anyway based on what you said.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

nah this a different la to , not the Dell its a Toshiba.

pppppp
it works if I ress really hard on they key; you could well be right about the dirt issue. Thanks.

 

[wsuffa]

Well, it's a good thing the last occupant of your house didn't have a middle initial of "P". Else we'd have to have an FBI investigation to find out who stole the "P" from the keyboard.

OK, enough politics for me.

 

[gismo]

nah this a different la to , not the Dell its a Toshiba.

pppppp
it works if I ress really hard on they key; you could well be right about the dirt issue. Thanks.

Does the "p" key feel normal. Many times I've managed to get a small food crumb under a key such that it wouldn't work until I blew it out with compressed air. On many keyboards you can simply pry up a keycap to inspect/clean, but on some the re-assembly is difficult, but if the alternative is a replacement keyboard you've got little to lose by trying (after blowing air fails to fix it). Also FWIW I think there's a table on the disk somewhere that translates key codes into ASCII and by modifying that you could "create" another 'p' key. I may be thinking of DOS days though YRMV.

 

[fgcason]

oopsie

 

[fgcason]

nah this a different la to , not the Dell its a Toshiba.

pppppp
it works if I ress really hard on they key; you could well be right about the dirt issue. Thanks.

I've had several keys do the same extact thing. The keyboard is probably fine electrically but it just doesn't know you pushed the key for some reason.
Crud in the keyboard most likely. (FWIW, most of the time I've had that problem, it's been gunk buildup on the switch contacts. Not always but most of the time)

Is the key moving normally and smoothly?
Clean your old snacks out from under the keys. (turn it upside down and shake it too)
Then if it's still giving you grief, clean the switch contacts.