Great: A New and Strange Problem
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (92589)
United States
December 17, 2023 3:08pm CST
Sometimes I really have to call my luck into question. But for some reason, only about an hour ago I started getting a stuck "S" key. It will just type esses continuously even if the button is not pressed.
As you can imagine, this pretty much makes the entire laptop useless. Luckily I have an external keyboard I can plug in and use, which is helping momentarily, although the laptop keyboard still gets recognized at some point and I get the esses again, which I then have to try to stop.
I suppose at some point I will have to take it in to have it fixed. But that's a major pain since it disables me completely from what I need to do with the laptop.
I may have to consider just buying a new one. But what a damn mess in the meantime. My other option is to completely disable the laptop keyboard so only the external one is recognized. But we'll see. I am hoping to not have to do that.
Have you ever experienced something like this happen to you?
12 people like this
12 responses
@porwest (92589)
• United States
18 Dec 23
@LadyDuck It is definitely an odd problem, and very annoying. Very distracting as well, especially when trying to write, since it breaks the "flow." I don't know how long I can deal with it. We'll see I guess. If I disable to laptop keyboard and just use my external one the problem goes away, but I still lose some portability of the laptop which is not a huge deal since I generally only use my computer in my "man room," but it can be if I am in a hotel or want to bring the computer into the camper when we go camping.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (80748)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Dec 23
Never had any keys get stuck on me but back in Latvia my keyboard keys had faded so I just remembered which keys were which but anyone else looking at my keyboard probably could not figure it out.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (80748)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
18 Dec 23
@porwest I agree about stuck keys some time ago I had a stuck SHIFT key but did not know it because it was stuck on one side and not the other. I also write without looking at the keys so at that time I had to be very careful not to SHIFT on the right side otherwise I would have no capital letters
1 person likes this
@porwest (92589)
• United States
19 Dec 23
@RasmaSandra I just tried to simply lock my laptop keyboard while I have the external keyboard plugged in, so I will see if that stops the laptop keyboard from intrusively trying to type esses. How frustrating though either way when things go wrong. lol
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (181642)
• United States
18 Dec 23
Yes. Fortunately I had an extended warranty on my computer. They came out quickly and replaced the whole keyboard. She did show me how to use an external keyboard which I don't remember how to do! lol Now my extended warranty is expired; so if anything else happens to this computer, I will get a new one. Good luck. Have a good week.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (181642)
• United States
18 Dec 23
@porwest I must be calling it by the wrong name. She showed me how to bring up the keyboard on the screen; and you type from there.
@TraveOnWorld (854)
• Georgia
18 Dec 23
Take it in for a service, the one time that happened to me it was just a hair at the back of the key (I had D getting stuck, grrr). I took it one of the cell phone repair shops and asked the guy to just blow out the keyboard with compressed air. Solved the problem and saved me a new laptop.
2 people like this
@flapiz (23152)
• United Kingdom
19 Dec 23
Unfortunately I had bad experience with having my laptop fixed so I probably would buy a new one instead. But if the external keyboard works then you can take your time with the decision of buying one or fixing it. It is also a test of your patience I suppose.
@JESSY3236 (20046)
• United States
19 Dec 23
Not on a laptop, but a computer keyboard. The keys pop out and I fixed it. And one time I had a problem with the keyboard not working and I discovered it was a low battery.
@lovebuglena (44721)
• Staten Island, New York
19 Dec 23
This must be annoying. There is no way you can use something (screwdriver perhaps?) to help get the key to its normal position?
@BearArtistLady (6036)
• United States
17 Dec 23
I have had the problem before, and discovered that it was something simple like a cat hair working its way down around the key. I got out my canned air and gave it a (pardon the expression) wind job (myLot didn't like me using the word "blow) and it worked okay again. It sounds like you have an expensive laptop so you may want to take it in for them to work on, especially if it might be something like dust etc. (That has been one of my other problems. Especially with my cable box...except that it's a different kind of dust that I have had to fight with it....the cats love the cable box because it's warm to sleep on.) Right now my space bar is a bit hard to get to work, but I can live with it for the time being. If my laptop has a key seemingly stick it's usually a cat standing on that key and watching it print across the screen. I get to clear up the mess they create.
@Beestring (14693)
• Hong Kong
18 Dec 23
That is frustrating. See if you can get someone to fix it. In the meantime, disable the laptop keyboard.
1 person likes this
@porwest (92589)
• United States
18 Dec 23
I am considering disabling it. It still kicks in from time to time and the only thing I can do to stop the esses from typing is to hit another key. Irritating. lol
By the way, angrily slamming my fist onto the computer does not help. lol
1 person likes this
