Welcome to... Keyboardgate
Jan. 26th, 2007 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbandruidHey, guys. I'm writing this in-between bouts of swearing. I'm using Mom's laptop, Morden, which isn't exactly my favorite computer. Most of the swearing, though, is being directed at the Gateway site.
I've been home since noon, and I've spent most of that time, excepting the couple of minutes it took me to haul Morden out of Mom's room, move Anna, and plug Morden into my phone line- I've spent most of that time poking at Google and Gateway, trying to figure out my keyboard issue.
It took a little over an hour of searching, swearing, and prodding the Gateway site's crappy search features, before I learned that the keyboard for my model is replaceable. They have some (kinda scary) step by step instructions, with pictures, in PDF, for how to replace the keyboard. They start with "This package contains your replacement keyboard..." or some such. So I know that they do make them, or that they exist somewhere.
What I suspect it's going to take me another hour to figure out, is if they have one in stock, and how much it would cost me. I don't know for sure yet that the keyboard needs to be replaced, but I suspect there's a strong possibility of that.
Mom offered to call the grandparents about the tech guy they have on call these days- and they need one. I love my grandmother, but she has no common sense at all where things like computers are concerned- she opens all those attachments they tell you not to, forwards them to half the family... Mom and I always say half the reason we have anti-virus software isn't because we're worried about hackers and worms, it's because we're worried about Grandma.
Anyway. This guy fixed a hardware problem they'd been having with the CD drive in their new computer, so Mom suggested calling the grandparents and getting this guy's number from them. I'm not sure how much he'd charge to look at Anna's keyboard, or to fix it if it's fixable, but his rates can't be too outrageous, or the grandparents wouldn't give him their business.
So, I'm thinking, call him- I offered to call Grandma myself this morning, but Mom said she'd do it, and I, uh, didn't argue too hard about that- and see if he can take a look at Anna over the weekend. Apparently he does house calls, but he may have a shop we could take the laptop to, too. (I suspect half the reason he makes house calls to Grandma's is that they've got one of those bigass tower CPU things, and nobody wants to haul one of those all around town.) '
But while I'm waiting for Mom to get off work and tell me where we are with this, I thought I'd do some research. I was kind of afraid that the keyboard would end up not being replaceable at all, so that I'd be looking at replacing the whole fucking laptop if the keyboard wasn't fixable. And after having Anna II's predecessor, Anna I, blow up one morning when I turned it on to check my mail before school... I wanted some warning this time, if my baby's days were numbered.
2:58 PM
I've pretty much given up on Gateway for now- they might have the part, but gods only know where they hide such things. I found a section of keyboards for sale, but it was under "PC Accessories", so... I went back to Google. Somebody has the part for around $60, but IE crashed on me when I tried to check it out. Apparently two windows is the limit for Morden, since I had Google and LJ open when I clicked on the link.
I'm not sure if the crash was really IE's fault, or Morden's- he gave me some totally random error a few minutes before the IE crash, about some software I've never heard of failing to load. Now, this is Mom's computer, so it could be something she usually has running, but usually she has the bare essential programs, because Morden's multitasking capability is... well, it sucks. Mom was unlucky enough to purchase Mr. Morden here, during the single year in which Microsoft was using Windows ME. The year after Mom bought Morden, they switched to Windows 2000. Or 2001, or something that was not ME. Point is, they changed the OS again the very next year.
Never a good sign, that.
Morden is slower than the second coming, occasionally gets stuck, so that you have to wait for him to stop spazzing out, loads web pages slower than hell, even by the standards of our not so fast dial-up (currently zooming along at 28.8, which is now the 'fast' connection.)
Not that I'm bitching. Much. It may take a bit to get pages loaded and such, but at least the keyboard works, I'm not having to c/p common letters every time I want to use them, or leaving them out and looking like my posts were written by a plebe on acid... It balances, I guess.
My biggest problem with Morden is really not that he's afflicted with ME- it is one of the issues I have with him, but not the biggie. No, the biggie is that he doesn't have my stuff. Not the weird esoteric little programs I use for everything, not my web files, my picture/icon archive of doom, or my billion and one "I'm gonna finish that someday, really" fanfics and original stuff. (Oh, or the folder full of school crap, but it's Friday afternoon, so school crap matters less than usual.)
And I can't check my email, unless I use the webmail thing on the ISP site. Which is awkward, unfamiliar, and otherwise annoying.
3:21 PM
Hmm. I don't think Morden's graphics display is as good as Anna's, either. Or Mom has her contrast turned way up.
None of this is really important, mind, I just felt like whining a bit about it. Anyway. I think I'll shut up now and go do something real. I don't have any idea what, but something.
I've been home since noon, and I've spent most of that time, excepting the couple of minutes it took me to haul Morden out of Mom's room, move Anna, and plug Morden into my phone line- I've spent most of that time poking at Google and Gateway, trying to figure out my keyboard issue.
It took a little over an hour of searching, swearing, and prodding the Gateway site's crappy search features, before I learned that the keyboard for my model is replaceable. They have some (kinda scary) step by step instructions, with pictures, in PDF, for how to replace the keyboard. They start with "This package contains your replacement keyboard..." or some such. So I know that they do make them, or that they exist somewhere.
What I suspect it's going to take me another hour to figure out, is if they have one in stock, and how much it would cost me. I don't know for sure yet that the keyboard needs to be replaced, but I suspect there's a strong possibility of that.
Mom offered to call the grandparents about the tech guy they have on call these days- and they need one. I love my grandmother, but she has no common sense at all where things like computers are concerned- she opens all those attachments they tell you not to, forwards them to half the family... Mom and I always say half the reason we have anti-virus software isn't because we're worried about hackers and worms, it's because we're worried about Grandma.
Anyway. This guy fixed a hardware problem they'd been having with the CD drive in their new computer, so Mom suggested calling the grandparents and getting this guy's number from them. I'm not sure how much he'd charge to look at Anna's keyboard, or to fix it if it's fixable, but his rates can't be too outrageous, or the grandparents wouldn't give him their business.
So, I'm thinking, call him- I offered to call Grandma myself this morning, but Mom said she'd do it, and I, uh, didn't argue too hard about that- and see if he can take a look at Anna over the weekend. Apparently he does house calls, but he may have a shop we could take the laptop to, too. (I suspect half the reason he makes house calls to Grandma's is that they've got one of those bigass tower CPU things, and nobody wants to haul one of those all around town.) '
But while I'm waiting for Mom to get off work and tell me where we are with this, I thought I'd do some research. I was kind of afraid that the keyboard would end up not being replaceable at all, so that I'd be looking at replacing the whole fucking laptop if the keyboard wasn't fixable. And after having Anna II's predecessor, Anna I, blow up one morning when I turned it on to check my mail before school... I wanted some warning this time, if my baby's days were numbered.
2:58 PM
I've pretty much given up on Gateway for now- they might have the part, but gods only know where they hide such things. I found a section of keyboards for sale, but it was under "PC Accessories", so... I went back to Google. Somebody has the part for around $60, but IE crashed on me when I tried to check it out. Apparently two windows is the limit for Morden, since I had Google and LJ open when I clicked on the link.
I'm not sure if the crash was really IE's fault, or Morden's- he gave me some totally random error a few minutes before the IE crash, about some software I've never heard of failing to load. Now, this is Mom's computer, so it could be something she usually has running, but usually she has the bare essential programs, because Morden's multitasking capability is... well, it sucks. Mom was unlucky enough to purchase Mr. Morden here, during the single year in which Microsoft was using Windows ME. The year after Mom bought Morden, they switched to Windows 2000. Or 2001, or something that was not ME. Point is, they changed the OS again the very next year.
Never a good sign, that.
Morden is slower than the second coming, occasionally gets stuck, so that you have to wait for him to stop spazzing out, loads web pages slower than hell, even by the standards of our not so fast dial-up (currently zooming along at 28.8, which is now the 'fast' connection.)
Not that I'm bitching. Much. It may take a bit to get pages loaded and such, but at least the keyboard works, I'm not having to c/p common letters every time I want to use them, or leaving them out and looking like my posts were written by a plebe on acid... It balances, I guess.
My biggest problem with Morden is really not that he's afflicted with ME- it is one of the issues I have with him, but not the biggie. No, the biggie is that he doesn't have my stuff. Not the weird esoteric little programs I use for everything, not my web files, my picture/icon archive of doom, or my billion and one "I'm gonna finish that someday, really" fanfics and original stuff. (Oh, or the folder full of school crap, but it's Friday afternoon, so school crap matters less than usual.)
And I can't check my email, unless I use the webmail thing on the ISP site. Which is awkward, unfamiliar, and otherwise annoying.
3:21 PM
Hmm. I don't think Morden's graphics display is as good as Anna's, either. Or Mom has her contrast turned way up.
None of this is really important, mind, I just felt like whining a bit about it. Anyway. I think I'll shut up now and go do something real. I don't have any idea what, but something.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-27 04:59 pm (UTC)Couple ideas that might be useful for your Anna:
1. Look through your hardware profile to find the manufacturer and model number of the keyboard, and try re-installing the driver. It could've become corrupted for some completely esoteric reason.
2. If you're looking for a full-on replacement keyboard, I'm a big fan of Bixnet.com. They're all about notebook upgrades, spare parts, etc, and I found the service (when I needed a new laptop hard drive and a RAM upgrade 2 yrs ago) to be really good.
3. A recent client had one of these newfangled Flexible Keyboards, and I thought they were just neat as all heck.
Good luck to you!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-28 07:52 am (UTC)