# Computer question: what the hell did I do to my keyboard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243 "2006-11-21T04:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/1 "2006-11-21T04:12:02Z")
About two weeks ago, the keyboard on my Gateway laptop started returning gibberish when I typed on it. Some characters are OK, but others are mixed up ( e.g., the “j” key returns the numeral “1”). Some experimenting narrowed the problem down to the function key – when I hold it down and type, everything is OK. But if I type without holding the function key down, “hello” becomes “he336”. Did I accidentally hit some combination of keys that changed some softkey settings? Or has the keyboard hardware died? TIA. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/2 "2006-11-21T04:34:46Z")
[QUOTE=F. U. Shakespeare] About two weeks ago, the keyboard on my Gateway laptop started returning gibberish when I typed on it. Some characters are OK, but others are mixed up ( e.g., the “j” key returns the numeral “1”). Some experimenting narrowed the problem down to the function key – when I hold it down and type, everything is OK. But if I type without holding the function key down, “hello” becomes “he336”. Did I accidentally hit some combination of keys that changed some softkey settings? Or has the keyboard hardware died? TIA. [/QUOTE] Sounds like you activated the 10-key number keypad. When you hold the function key down, it reverts to the normal keyboard. In effect, you have changed the keyboards default settings to numbers. I don’t happen to have a Gateway laptop, so I don’t know how to change it back, but I’m fairly certain that’s what has happened. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/3 "2006-11-21T04:45:41Z")
Yeah, that’s it. Either RTFM, or check your function keys around F5 for one that also has a little grid that might look like the number pad on a full 101 board if you squint. Hit Fn-F(Whatever-That-Key-Was) and things are back to normal. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/4 "2006-11-21T04:48:03Z")
Yeah, you have numlock on. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/5 "2006-11-21T04:50:25Z")
I guess it could also be labeled [Pad Lock](http://www.support.gateway.com/support/manlib/Notebooks/Solo1400/8508319/08319cha.htm) ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/6 "2006-11-21T05:01:31Z")
Yes, it was ‘numlock’ – specifically: J=1 K=2 L=3 U=4 I=5 O=6 (etc – all numbers in blue). The scroll key has the ‘padlock’ icon in blue. I pressed this key and the problem went away. Thanks to all. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/7 "2006-11-21T05:29:54Z")
Gateway keyboards used to have another interesting trick: there was a key that, once you pressed it, would let you remap keys (first keypress = key to be remapped; second keypress = key to map the first one to) until you want back and pressed the remap-function key again to tell it you were done. (Don’t ask me whose brilliant idea this was!) You had it way easy with just numerical keypad 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-what-the-hell-did-i-do-to-my-keyboard/381243/8 "2006-11-21T07:09:22Z")
you… um… went two weeks without trying to press the numlock key? dude… don’t be a pussy.