7 Key gone rogue
 

Whoah, the 77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777 key on my laptop has gone nuts.
It 777777777777777777has 7777777fi7ts o7f 7gener77ating 7constant sevenss but doesnt work when I try to use it. It does this as soon as the cursor is in a box that I could type text into, such as a post or the address bar.

Somet77imes I can stop it by typing another letter from the 77l7aptop. 7 77777I have isolated the external 77keyboar77d7 7777777777777777777777777777777with no effect.777 I have jiggled the key and am considering pulling it off to examine underneath77. This has happened on two different days77, ie7 I have restarted.
777777777777
This is how all my posts have been coming out lately. It is a fight to edit them without putting more sevens in.

Mac7hi7ne is7 777777777777a 7oldish Dell inspiron 1300, with Japanese keybo7ard and777777777777777777777777 a7nd hasn777t had a good software cle777an up ever.
7
Anyone got a7ny ideas? 7

And TW, don7t7 you dare say "not provided were specific numbers" Here are all the numbers you could want. :D
77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777
77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777
77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777
77777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Per chance, is seven your lucky number?

Apparently the devil has not infected your computer.

I think you should run your keyboard through the dishwasher.

if you take off the keyCAP, you'll likely be sorry.

I expect that you don't have much machinery under there that could be affected by such a misguided attempt at heroic countermeasures. PROBABLY. you have a membrane keyboard under those plastic caps. A printed circuit board, covered with a dimpled silicone membrane. you can't get under just one "key". most likely, you've gotten a crumb or drip and some corrosion has happened between these contacts on the "7" key. and the circuit is closed making a 7 appear....

so sorry.

actually... fixing it.. very difficult 7/10. REPLACING it... very easy 2/10.

presuming of course, that you have a replacement keyboard. used? or new? ... depends on the popularity of the make/model. they are practically never interchangable.

HLJ's suggestion is as good as I can imagine if you intend to try to repair it. don't take the keycap off though, it will never go back on right. /voice of experience.

/aside
I once worked for a construction company and I often had to setup small networks in the jobshack at a jobsite. very very dirty environment by computer standards, but these guys were turning a hole in the ground into a building... so .. anyhow. once I revisited one of my installations and noticed the keyboard of the project manager's laptop was seriously dirty. filthy. so I unlimbered the local shop vac.. and promptly remove a whole stripe of keys.

FUCK

/end aside

you won't get that keycap back on, brother.

if you remove it, wash it, and let it dry very very very very days long thoroughly... you might make whatever was conductively icky in there dilute and wash away.

maybe.

or just price a new one. may be reasonable. If you go this route, you can definitely do the replacement. I've done scores, and you can do it.

I am glad there is no 13 key.


Hm, do not have a dishwasher. Would it be enough to do it by hand, and dry it in the microwave? (and see below ;) )

To be clear, we're talking about the built-in keyboard on a laptop computer, right? I hadn't thought of replacing that as a whole component. I will look into that.

Then again I might just get a more stable desktop machine. This one is old and slow.

Replacing a laptop keyboard can definitely be done by a layperson, I did my own with a little instructional help from the intarwebs. Careful on compatibility though, like BigV said--mine was direct from the manufacturer because it was still under warranty.

Just leave it the way it is. What's it hurting? Don't include "7" in any of your passwords.

7Tha7nks, a7ll7, but for Flint, this is 7why 777 I 77777777 think77 i7t sh7ould7 77777b7e 7f7i7xe7d.77777777777777777777


I'7m 7777now considering 77the '7whole new system 7'7 approach.777777777777777

Are you running Windows 77777777777777777, by chance?

:p:

Could be worse. Could be the [6], which would be a sign of the apocalypse.

replacing a laptop keyboard is not hard. getting the freaking thing open is.

Okay, the 7 key was behaving itself for a while there, but went evil again a few days back. BigV, you were right, pulling the key cap off didn't help, but it did confirm that it didn't help, and made me feel a bit better.
So I googled the Dell manual, and have opened the machine (from the top, pretty easy) and disconnected the built-in keyboard. I'm typing this on a wireless keyboard.

I've ordered a new keyboard - $45 + 15 shipping, should be 3 days, compared to the shop down the road who wanted $160 and 2-3 weeks! I reckon I can put it in okay.

So far so good.

You may also remember me whining about slow performance. Well I've done some self-edumacation and have found out this poor old thing has only 512 MB of RAM. It can take up to 2 GB so I'm planning to do that.

This morning and afternoon have been a blur of numbers. I know the RAM has to be the right type, speed, etc etc. (for the techies: SO-DIMM DDR2 533MHz PC2-4200 200 pin Non-ECC, and my machine can take up to 2 x 1 GB chips.)

More shopping around has again found local stores with ridiculous prices, and an online store with much better prices.

So I am down to a final decision between three products. The main specs are the same but there are a few minor differences. I'd just like to list the three here and see if anyone has any thing to say, either good or bad experiences with these brands or such.

1. A-RAM $22.40. Says "latency 5-5-5-15" I have no idea.

2. Corsair $26.10. Doesn't mention latency.

3. Kingston $33.40. Latency timings CL4.

Links to these three are here.

Any opinions?

Here's what I do. Go to crucial.com. Use their advisor tool to find out what memory you need. Now go to newegg, amazon, etc. looking for a good price.

Thanks, Pete, I think I used that site yesterday.
Interestingly, they say it can go from 533 MHZ / PC2-4200, to 667 MHz / 5300. However, other sites say it *can* take that but won't make much difference because the motherboard is limited to 400 MHz. I'm going to play conservative and get the same specs as the existing chips, only more GBs.

I'll buy from someone in Australia - prices are a tad higher and I will pay 10% GST, but shipping will be much quicker and cheaper.

Mostly I wanted to check if anyone would say OMG don't by [BRAND], they suk! or something.

Yesterday I also learned that I *can* replace the processor, but the only compatible ones are Pentium Ms, this machine already has the 3rd best such model, the top two are only a little better and are both hard to get on account of being several year old. Swapping processors seems a bit trickier, so I don't think I'll bother with that.

Well I would recommend going with a name brand for memory. I've had memory go bad and it can be very frustrating until you figure out what's going on.

Personally, I'd stick with either Crucial or Kingston. YMMV

Please update after replacing your keyboard!!
I'm having the same problem with Presario 2104US laptop.

Removed keyboard and touchpad and plugged in a USB mouse and keyboard.

Tried a clean install of XP after running Killdisk. But as soon as it is time to type a name or anything in starts the 7777777777.

I can hold down a differant key, for example, z and I get 7z7z7z7z7z.

So with no keyboard just mouse and I click the cursor in a box and away go the 777777.

Please let me know if a new keyboard helps. Or if others may have ideas please post.

Thanks,
Butch

Thanks Pete, I went for the Kingston, being a little dearer but with a good warranty.
Replacing the keyboard was a tad tricky, getting the ribbon connector in properly, but I practised with the old one first and it worked first time.

Then to add 2 X 1 GB ram chips. Interestingly one web site said "The first socket may not be user accessible. Please consult your system manual...".
Hmmm.
Well I youtubed for videos of people changing RAM, there are plenty out there, one chap was specialising in Dells, and he mentioned that sometimes socket one is under the keyboard. Which I had just replaced. :smack:

Well, I went through the bottom to get at the first chip, and lo and behold, there is the second chip positioned just beneath it. Click, pull, click, pull ... push, click, push, click ... done.

The first time I fired it up the desktop Icons were strobing, but that went away when I restarted, so, all is well.

And maaaaan it makes a difference. The machine used to jam and freeze and have confuptions whenever I asked it to do more than one thing at a time. I guess half a gig of RAM just don't cut it nowadays.

Thank you all.

/thread.

Hi Butch, didn't see your post for some reason.

It is weird that you are having trouble with the 7 key specifically.
I'm pretty certain that mine was caused by a hardware issue in the keyboard, because it stopped when I disconnected the laptop keyboard by unplugging the ribbon cable from the rest of the machine. When you say you 'removed the keyboard' does this mean physically unplugged? I tried uninstalling the keyboard driver but it always seemed to automatically reinstall upon restart. Which did you mean?

Replacing the keyboard was reasonably easy.

Good luck with it.

Keyboard
 

If you're having issues like that with a keyboard on a laptop, do two things:

1. Take $10 and go to your local Wal-Mart and get a USB keyboard.
2. Take said USB keyboard, go to eBay, type in your computer name and keyboard, and buy one. It'll be much cheaper than anywhere else. If you need a small screwdriver set, buy one there too. Spend the $5, since Radio Shack charges $15 for the same thing.

I've had very good luck with finding keyboard for obscure Dell and IBM models there. Takes about 5 minutes to get everything you need.

If you want to buy RAM, go for Kingston. I use their server RAM in a 2-server DB cluster that is the base for three very busy hospital emergency departments. No failures yet, and we really stress those servers. I also use their RAM in our Laboratory Information System (Meditech), which is one of the most cantankerous and hardware-stressing environments you can find. Again, no failures.

The problems with the rogue 7 key are directly traceable to top management.

All of top management or only 85% of top management mission accomplished?