# Computer Help
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 11, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745 "2009-09-11T22:29:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/1 "2009-09-11T22:29:23Z")
I’m living with my sister for the times being; she has a Dell Dimension E510 running WindowsXP Home Edition. This thing is possessed, or I am too ignorant of computer 101 to solve the problem.
When one is writing a Word Document, pressing the ‘shift’ key in order to capitalize a word causes some strange behavior. Instead of simply printing a capital letter, a pop up dialog box appears. In some cases, everything one has typed prior to this event is simply wiped out. In other cases, hitting the ‘enter’ key outside the dialog box makes everything all better.
I would appreciate any and all contributions as to this problem; it is driving me and my sister insane. Not that we need driving all that far.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/2 "2009-09-11T22:36:06Z")
That’s an odd one!
If I were you I’d install some antivirus and run a scan.
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>
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I’m not saying you have a virus but I usually think virus when I see odd behavour I’ve never seen before.
What does the popup box say?
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/3 "2009-09-12T02:29:18Z")
Could the keyboard is mapped strangely?
Which version of Word is it?
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/4 "2009-09-12T02:34:42Z")
Go into control panel\>Accessibility and make sure that’s all turned off (ie Sticky Keys). It’s a long shot, but anytime something goes wonky with the shift key, that’s the first place I check. (It has a habit of turning it self on with odd key strokes (ie holding shift key for X seconds, tapping shift x amount of times)
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### Author:  [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/5 "2009-09-12T02:38:53Z")
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> What does the popup box say?
It was Japanes, grey, 73000 miles, and started with an ‘A’.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/6 "2009-09-12T09:04:02Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#):
>
> It was Japanes, grey, 73000 miles, and started with an ‘A’.
😕
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/7 "2009-09-12T16:17:44Z")
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> That’s an odd one!
> If I were you I’d install some antivirus and run a scan.
>
> [http://free.avg.com/](http://free.avg.com/)
>
> I’m not saying you have a virus but I usually think virus when I see odd behavour I’ve never seen before.
>
> What does the popup box say?
The message differs but the most consistent asks just what it is that you want translated.
This machine has had Norton loaded, against my advice. I don’t know how well Norton and AVG play together. Anyway, I promised my sister I wouldn’t download anything----I lied about Firefox, though.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/8 "2009-09-12T16:55:43Z")
> [@LouisB](#):
>
> The message differs but the most consistent asks just what it is that you want translated.
>
> This machine has had Norton loaded, against my advice. I don’t know how well Norton and AVG play together. Anyway, I promised my sister I wouldn’t download anything----I lied about Firefox, though.
Strange. I’d check the icons along the bottom by the clock and check the task manager and look for some sort of translation software and disable it.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/9 "2009-09-12T17:15:49Z")
Usually virus detectors don’t play well together and you need to only have one on your machine at a time.
I found often the “alt” key is stuck and banging it a few times will undo any problem.
The easiest thing to do is to uninstally MS Word and reinstall it again. That should take care of any issues.
A favourite “April Fool’s Joke” of mine is to remap keyboards, so it’s possible to do this or even to create your own shortcuts. Usually a “shift+alt” keys are short cut keys so one might have gotten inadvertently set
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/10 "2009-09-12T18:48:29Z")
Can you try another keyboard? Sometimes keys stick or the key-switch mechanism goes nuts. Taking the keyboard off and giving it a good smacking then re-attaching will sometimes tell you if the problem is sticky keys or not.
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help/509745/11 "2009-09-12T21:21:13Z")
I have some divorce decisions to make tonight; I’m considering just taking my clothes and a few personal things that are special to me and leaving the heavy, hard to move stuff to her. Anyway, I’ll have to get another keyboard and give it a shot. As to reloading Word, she didn’t get the CDs; I don’t understand the magic behind reloading something without CDs so I’ll have to study a little bit. At the moment, my mind is not functioning very well at all.