A humble and modest question 1

[Skogsgurra]

Suddenly this morning, my keyboard or PC or whatever refused putting the same thing on screen as I pressed on the keyboard. A few examples. Paranthesis became * and (. AT in mail addresses became nothing, Exclamation mark works ! and period, too. Our diacritic letters, aa ae and oe, became {@:. No serious work possible any more.

I did all the settings like region, keyboard language and screen representation right. There was noting to change, BTW.

I ran help&faultfinder and came out with no infection and nothing wrong at all. I wrote MS helpdesk and they didn#t answer.

Anyone had this before_ _ is what question mark looks like now.

HELP!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[itsmoked]

Have you tried a different keyboard?

I just had a laptop keyboard take a dump. We couldn't even log in.
I picked up a small blue tooth keyboards with one of the micro USB receivers - same as most mice. It took that without even having a logged in user. It's a nicer keyboard than the one on the laptop. Works great.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Skogsgurra]

Thanks a lot, Keith. As Capt Bigglesworth used to say. The simplest solutions are the hardest to find. Will try!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[Skogsgurra]

TEST> supposed to be a colon
!"£$%^&*()_ Upper row shifted. Is this what you get_ I have entirely different things on my keys.
It behaves like the other one. Anything else_ Was supposed to be a question mark there.
I will sit up until dawn comes if necessary.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[Skogsgurra]

Problem temporarily solved! Robbed Missus and use her data machine. But need to use my own. So the struggle goes on.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I used to understand this stuff.
PC,AT:
Simple keyboard processor sends a serial code to the motherboard, four or so characters,
one sequence for (key) depressed,
another sequence for (key) released.
8741 or 8742 on motherboard receives key sequences, may operate on them,
may buffer for CPU response, asks CPU for help via bus.
Then the world changed.
150+ chips on a motherboard shrank to, what, ten big ones?
The BIOS now also talks to USB keyboards, and USB everything else.

On a really old computer, your symptoms would suggest a row or column wire screwed up on the keyboard,
maybe from a beer spill.
... but not on a new-ish one, where two keyboards misbehave identically.
Maybe whatever part of some damn LSI does what the 874x used to do, has gone off to see God.

Keith's fix is simplest; $30 at Walmart for a wireless keyboard, mouse and USB receiver.

If that doesn't work, start looking for a new motherboard.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[IRstuff]

I would check to see if your keyboard settings haven't been changed at Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Language\Language options\Input method

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[Skogsgurra]

The PC is brand new. A new keyboard doesn#t help. You guys know me better than to offer me standard advice. All settings under the window-cogwheel *settings, that is( have been examined and the faultfinder has been run. No hardware problems detected. No viruses detected. MS helpdesk doesn#t answer.

I just unpacked another PC and it works. So I will probably install lots of things on it if I can#t make this work. Sigh.

Have been using computers before BG was born, was Gary Kildal then and Chuck Moore, My first PC was a 4.7 MHz 640 kB Ram thing with 5.25 320 kB (yes, 320 not 360) floppy disks and never seen anything like this before. May have to re/install Windows.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[itsmoked]

It's software..
Language pack is not happy or you have a driver or app that's screwing the pooch.

There are a dozen ways for this to go haywire. ASUS used to have this problem with a video driver! Lots of client and virtualizing software will cause this. Shell programs too.

You have never stated what operating system or program app you're having this problem with.

I think Windoz newer versions have on screen keyboards you can call up. If your version has this try that as it may shed light on where things are going into the weeds.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Skogsgurra]

It all started yesterday when MS forced me to reregister for Open Office to be able to read an old Word file. After that, I think they installed updates too, it started.

Problems everywhere. From Outlaw to Word and Excel. Oh, yes Windows 10. I hope. But I am losing it when it comes to MS and all their blackmailish things. Do you know if Bill is home. I shall try and phone him about this. Hope Melinda is out.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[JG2828]

Try holding the leftmost alt button and tapping shift. This appears to be the default way to switch between different installed keyboards.
You can see which keyboards are installed in Control Panel / Region and Languages / Keyboards and Languages / Change keyboards.
Here are what my settings look like for reference.

 

[Skogsgurra]

Thanks JG2828!
That saved me a phone call to BG.

LOOK: ÅÖÄ, no probs and this: ÅIÅÖÄEÖ, which means "and, in the river there's an island"

Everything works again! Even l'accent égu et grave: à quel prix?

EngTips - the greatest problem solver on Earth!

Even @ works.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[Skogsgurra]

Addendum: The ALT/SHIFT worked on first try.
All the other checked as before.
Can the forced "upgrade" have forced this?

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[JG2828]

Can the forced "upgrade" have forced this?

Maybe. Or maybe you accidentally clicked alt and shift. Clicking this does nothing for me since I only have one "keyboard" installed. You could remove the one you are not using so it doesn't happen again.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Damn computers.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Skogsgurra]

Sorry for late feed-back.
Uninstalled all keyboards than SWE.
No more surprises.
Thanks to JG2828

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.