I have a 6 year old 101 key Acer keyboard. Just outta curiosity i opened it about 18-20 months ago and cracked the plastic screw holder present near the "escape" key. coz of which i have to hit the keys near esc key a bit harder so that it makes contact with the circuit.

Though i didnt face any serious problem till a week ago when my keyboard started acting strange. My keyboard stopped obeying me. If i press 'd' it would type 'dddas', if 'x' then 'xdlvv4' and so on for other keys (especially these ones - e,r,d,f,c,v).

I have an updated antivirus running, so its not a virus. Also, this problem is intermittent. Sometimes kb would disobey me completely, no sooner than i press a key, it would start its alien talk. (xxlvb4 ....). Sometimes keys other than e,r,d,f,c,v would work fine. Sometimes some character keys would act as control keys, like pressing 'd' would turn on caps-lock automatically.

If the kb went completely bad, the problem shouldnt be intermittent... but i think there is some thing or some test i could conduct to check the problem .... although a new kb is fairly cheap, but what i am interested is in finding the fault in the current one.

kb aint a ps/2 or usb. it plugs into the normal kb connector on intel 810 mobo. i read abt a similar prob but the suggestions there were for usb and ps/2.

Rahul, shouldn't you be studying for your classes??? ;) Just kidding.

Well, take it apart. Clean it. Look at it closely. Read THIS (http://pcguide.com/ref/kb/index.htm) and see what you can find. :)

I know. This isn't alot of help but who knows, you might find it!

rahulkothari

I have a 6 year old 101 key Acer keyboard. Just outta curiosity i opened it about 18-20 months ago and cracked the plastic screw holder present near the "escape" key. coz of which i have to hit the keys near esc key a bit harder so that it makes contact with the circuit.

Everyone deserves a new toy now and then...Why don't you treat yourself to a new keyboard??? Like you said, the new keyboards are pretty cheap and some are very nice! :D
Sometimes kb would disobey me completely, no sooner than i press a key, it would start its alien talk.
It may be possessed!! :eek: Quickly! put it somewhere so that no harm will come!
If it has a lot of sentimental value, make a computer museum in the corner of the room.
You can always glance over at it and smile with respect as you type on your BRAND NEW SHINY CLEAN keyboard! :p :D

i lost track of this one .... probably coz the keybrd acted normal for the last 2 weeks. weird ! ... i dont know how the keybrd problem was auto-solved(now is that some kinda "feature" offered by M$ Windows :p )... but now the same old prob has cropped up. (i suppose this is the bug in the "feature" ;) )

i read PCguide, opened the keybrd, cleaned it, closed it. still the problem stays.

this is how i get the "output" of above text ..... it took me more than 15 min to "successfully" type the above 4 lines....
i lost5 t55rack o\f t55his one ..... proaly coz t5he kebd ac5t5ed normal for t55he las*t55 2 weeks . weird ! .. i dont5 know how t55he kebrd p9rblme wsa aut55o-soled (now is t55hat some kinda "feat5ure" offewredby Mg in t5h5e "fa5t5ur")$ Windows :p)..... ut5 now t55he same old prohas cropped up.( i suppose t55his is thebu bb oyybb

steve, my new college allows me to bunk enough. ;)

jabarnutcase, i will purchase a new one in a weeks time . (i will have to ! )

Hmmmm, maybe my assistant typist is visiting you?

Really, it is time to send that old keyboard out to pasture.....

Rahul,
6 year is too looooong time for keyboard, and it is not too coastly you can find new in only 260 Rs. So why you west your time on it replace it and spare time to earn more money from that time which youare westing on that dead key board.(yes it is Ahemdabadi's thinking:)

Ahmedabadi's thinking ... :D

6 year is too looooong time for keyboard, and it is not too coastly you can find new in only 260 Rs. So why you west your time on it replace it and spare time to earn more money from that time which youare westing on that dead key board.(yes it is Ahemdabadi's thinking


Hmmm, Hmmm, This horse (http://xavier.xu.edu/~polt/FlyingOliver-animated.gif) wouldn't even make it to the backside of the barn with me and I'd know what you meant if you'd said, "It's what's for dinner..." (Almost Beef) :D

Westing? (Wasting my Time)

Actually, I am using a 12 yr old keybpard, but it is built like a tank, and possibly designed to withstand a nuclear attack....a good old
clicky" IBM Model M. I would say it is possible for this thing to go another 12 yrs, but there aren't many other ones out there that would even make the six yours did.

finally, i got a new 'old keyboard'. maybe older than yours mjc, i dunno.

Its a Unicorp keyboard and weighs almost thrice than my older ACER keyboard. my hands just fit too well ... infact i can type faster. it has an AT-XT switch at the back.

few keys (the 4 arrow keys) look bulged out, i aint sure whether it was made like this or they have come out. those keys are like ... pleading me "help us get outta here" :p . Enter key is pretty unstable .... rest are fine...infact great.

i m planning to open it and give it a bath. i suppose it has never been opened and was lying in trash from the past few yrs.

what do you guys say ? should i open it and clean it with some chemical or should i leave it just like it is ?

:eek:
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------- :eek:
-------------:confused:-----------------> :confused: I'm gonna find one even older! HAHA!...I'll show you guys!!!! Just you wait and see!!! I mean, it just aint fair. :( How come I got to type on one of these damn "new fangled" hunks of junk??? I don't know...Some guys just get all the breaks. :mad:
--------:eek:
-----:eek:
:eek:

If ? You REALLY Really want an older one
I just happen to have an IBM Pc Jr. XT complete :)

Now that is Old..
Finding an adapter to use it on an AT will take some major hunting:D

Thanks for the offer Rick, but if it doesn't have at least a few broken keys and intermittent problems....I don't think I would be interested.

Appreciate it though! :D

Sorry.
Can’t help you there
Like MJC’s old IBM that one is also working perfectly
Also Like Pete and MJC I use the Old tank IBM AT keyboard

HeHe...All kidding aside Rick. I understand that some of the old keyboards are truly built like tanks and are hard to get rid of.

So, why get rid of it? I certainly see the point.

On the other hand, technology has changed quite a bit. And while there are some really cheap pieces of junk that you are lucky to get a year out of, there are also some very well build keyboards, with many new features that I'm sure are designed to last a very long time.

Just like cars..."They sure don't make em like they used to".
Yep, that's true. They're ten times more reliable then they ever were.

Each to his own...I can respect that! ;)

(Edit) Geesh...Poor rahulkothari. We're getting off the subject here and still haven't answered his question! What do you think he should do???

This tells it all

http://home.wi.rr.com/nasons/winkeyerror.gif



rahulkothari

Clean it. it can't hurt

:D

hehe... nice one, Rick.

so i opened my kb, cleaned it ... the internal structure was very different than my previous.... this one had a big green ckt board while the older (or newer !) had those transparent plastic ckts.

i removed, cleaned, reseated almost all the keys but the ENTER key would just not seat. while other keys took hardly few seconds, this one took almost 2 hours .... eventhen it didnt fit properly ... finally i got fed up and stuck it with an adhesive to that arm like thing.... now it works well ...

thanks.

bye.

jabar...I have kids, when this trusty old IBM passed my threshold it took me longer to blink than to swap it with the keyboard I had, that has one all those "features"....the only one I miss is the volume control, plus my system uses much less resources by not running the special drivers/software for those "feature" rich keyboards....

The only thing I might replace this one with would be a wireless one, but I am semi-seriously looking into the possibility of somehow converting this to wireless.

MJC If you want to convert a KB that old, perhaps you should look for something like THIS (http://www.tri.net/radio/20/rc.jpg) :D

David

HeHe...I hear you mjc. I have three kids too and I must say, they went through several ("cheapo") keyboards before I finally got them off to college. Now they have to buy their own!

Honest, I really wasn't picking on you guys. I know some of the oldies are truly goodies. I just kind of like some of the new ones. Light, a nice soft touch. I actually have a few oldies hanging around still.

Right now, I am using a (gulp..he said embarrassingly) M$ natural keyboard. Not the fancy one with all the e-mail, calculater, etc. keys, but a pretty basic one. It was really strange to get used to, but if you lay your hands down without thinking about it, they fall right into that position "naturally". I have really grown to like it. And of course a few of the "modern" keys (like the windows key for example) come in handy for some stuff.

I like to try new stuff. I've had my eye on a cordless keyboard too- Maybe a Logitech like WYZMNS to go along with my soon to come cordless mouse.
Anyway, when you get the ol' IBM to go cordless, let me know. That would be something! :D

WOW! Just after I "previewed my reply" I saw Davids post...He may be onto something there!!!