Having computer trouble again

[Velaryon]

So my goddamn cat caused me to spill ramen on the laptop, and a bunch of different keys have stopped working. In order to even type this, I had to get creative with some cutting and pasting, which is REALLY tedious.

If it matters, the following keys are affected:

b
n
7 and 9 on the number pad
+ and equal key on the top row
enter on the number pad
caps lock
right alt
possibly one or more of the function keys

My friend tried to help me out over the phone but I have had no luck fixing it so far.

[Tyrrox Zym]

Ugh sorry to hear that. You can plug in a USB keyboard as a temporary fix if you have the room for it? Not ideal I know but its something.

[Velaryon]

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing. I bought a USB keyboard and mouse combo on the cheap. As you say it's not ideal, but it'll do.


There's some cosmic law of the universe that I'm not allowed to have computers for any real length of time without something breaking or going bad on them.

My first laptop back in 2001 (admittedly this as a bad purchase on my part because it was refurbished and bought at a convention rather than a store) had the CD drive freak out after a Windows update, which caused it to blue screen any time I put a disc in. After that the screen loosened a bit so that it couldn't free stand and had to be propped against something. Eventually, the battery went to hell so that it couldn't hold a charge, so I had to use it plugged in all the time... until a kink developed in the power cord and it wouldn't work unless it was positioned exactly right. The last time I tried to turn it on, I smelled burning circuits, so that one's dead for good.

My second laptop which I bought in early 2004 was fine and lasted until... early 2010 maybe? Eventually it blue screened for no apparent reason and that was that. Up until that point it was a pretty good laptop, other than having a hard drive that eventually wasn't big enough for my needs.

My third laptop was a ghetto piece of shit. At the airport during my worst vacation ever, it leaped out of my backpack (while things I had packed in on top of it somehow didn't fall out) and the screen shattered on the concrete. A year or so later it stopped recognizing the power cord, causing a weird situation where it would run on AC power but would not recharge the battery. It also got pretty hot during use. Eventually the internal cooling fan died, which meant that it was good for about 15-20 minutes of use before it would overheat and shut down.

Laptop number four originally belonged to my mom, but she never really used it. At first I only used it for grad school, but eventually she just gave it to me. It was never great because it was bought for cheap, but it did what I needed it to... until one day when Windows suddenly couldn't start. I was able to grab files off it by using a disc with another OS on it, but unfortunately not all of them because the hard drive was partitioned into C and D drives, and the other OS would only look at the C drive for some reason.

Laptop number five I bought last year from Sam's Club, and it died in less than a month after purchase. I don't know what was wrong with it, but since HP tried to make me pay shipping costs to send it in, I just returned it to the store.

Laptop six is this one, which I bought from Ken a few months ago. It was fine until the ramen incident.

At this point I average only around three years per computer, which frustrates the shit out of me.

[Tyrrox Zym]

Well glad you got something going with an external keyboard but you certainly have some bad luck with laptops. Sadly they aren't made to last much longer than 3 years anymore, but if you are lucky or aren't rough on them you should be able to get 5-6 years.

[Velaryon]

I've had a problem the last day or so where it seems to spaz out a bit. I don't know if this is related to the ramen incident or not.

Last night I tried to make a post on Facebook but I couldn't because the page started constantly refreshing. I ended up closing the browser, unplugging and replugging my USB keyboard, and it seemed to be okay.

This morning it did the same thing again, and doing the same thing didn't work. I also discovered that it wasn't specific to Facebook, but happened when I tried to go to other sites as well. I ended up restarting the computer, and that seemed to solve the issue for the moment.

I have no idea what might be causing that, but if it persists it's going to be an issue.

[Tyrrox Zym]

It sounds like the laptops keyboard might have a short or something from the Ramen that is causing certain keys to constantly activate even if you aren't pressing them, like F5 to refresh the web page. You might want to try disabling the laptop's keyboard but I have never tried doing it myself. I think you might be able to go into Device Manager and disable or uninstall the laptop keyboard driver. Normally I wouldn't say to do that, but since its already broke I don't think there is much to worry about. It may not work but could be worth a try?

In this video this guy basically sets the built in keyboard driver to a bogus driver so that it doesn't work. Just make sure to not change the keyboard you plugged in.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OaesM81Fg0

[Velaryon]

It behaved itself last night (though I didn't really do very much other than turn it on and leave it sitting while I did other things), but if the problem persists I will try that.

[Velaryon]

The problem persisted a bunch over the weekend, so I decided to follow the instructions in the video (though I had to rewind a lot because I always have trouble with the Indian accent). I seem to have successfully disabled the built-in keyboard, so here's hoping that's the end of the issue.

[Tyrrox Zym]

Yeah hopefully that helps.

[Velaryon]

I've had no more trouble with web pages constantly refreshing since I disabled the laptop keyboard. However, I have had a new issue. So far it's only happened a few times, but it just happened twice in a row within a minute or two.

Now the computer is randomly going to sleep even when I'm doing something. I can be reading a web page, scrolling or even typing a post, and all of a sudden the screen goes dark and my power button starts blinking like it has gone into standby. If I press the power button then the password screen comes up and I can log back in. Everything is then fine unless it decides to happen again.

[leon]

I think its haunted.

[Velaryon]

Evidently by the Ghost of Ramen Past.