There’s something wrong with my laptop. First, last night my battery didn’t seem to be charging anymore, so I had to go down to my office to get the docking port I use there. On closer investigation it appears that the real problem with the battery is that it can’t hold a charge, which is an inconvenience, but not a catastrophe.
Today, however, I noticed that my laptop seems to be stuck in ‘shift’ position. I was typing in the number of my VPN locket and it came out like cartoon characters swearing. I noticed, too, that when I would try to select an object in any window, everything above and to the right would also be selected.
Is there any way I can fix this, short of buying a keyboard?
Normally, vigorously jostling or smacking the keyboard is the preferred “unstick” method, but on a notebook this is obviously problematic as the keyboard is coupled mechanically to lots of delicate things that really don’t like to be smacked.
If playing with the sticking key or tapping it forcefully (within limits) won’t unstick it you’ll have to remove the keyboard before doing more aggressive stuff to it, or replacing it. If your BIOS allows you can disable the internal KB and use an external PS2 or USB KB.
If the key is not actually mechanically stuck (you didn’t say) but the shift mode is on anyway it sounds like removing the battery for 10 minutes and unplugging the power then rebooting might solve the problem.
Thanks, astro. The problem fortunately seems to have resolved itself for now, but I’ll keep your suggestions in mind for the future…and also maybe buy a cheap emergency keyboard.
This might be “sticky keys” - a mode which has nothing to do with the physical key being stuck, but the computer acting like it is, for people who have trouble holding down one key while pressing another. Look under “accessories” and then, IIRC, “accessibility”
Kinda reminds me of something that happened a few years ago, when I sneezed, rather “wetly” on my laptop’s keyboard. The entire right side of the keys no longer functioned.
Sticky stuff happens to laptops. Though the key may be “up” it’s mechanism is “pressed”.
A good cleaning of the keyboard, removed from the laptop might help, but it’s probably easier to replace the keyboard. Fairly cheap, and actually a repair most folks can do if they pay attention. Most models have directions are available on line.