On 17/10/10 18:19, Victor Churchill wrote:
> My laptop seems to have got its F1 key permanently stuck.
Have you tried a bit of canned air to blow away any dirt around the key?
And/or the vacuum cleaner?
Some laptop keys will pop off if you get a fingernail under a corner,
enabling better access for cleaning.
And it's not usually too hard to take the keyboard out the check that
contacts etc. are clean -- google for help with your particular model,
service manuals are often available online.
You could even try a bit of WD40 on the keyboard -- although I wouldn't
do that without removing it from the laptop first.
cheers
Chris
Or rather,
> it seems to be continuously generating a stream of key press events
> that look to the system as if F1 is being repeatedly hit.
>
> This seems to be a bit sporadic, not happening all the time but is
> pretty disabling.
> I get these characters everywhere from login onwards.
>
> If I can get a terminal up and say 'od -b -' I see
> ^[OP^[OP^[OP ...
> which is the bytes 033 117 120 033 117 120 ....
>
> xev shows the following pair of events repeating very quickly (I am
> copy typing only the 'relevant' bits):
> KeyPress event, ... keycode 67 (keysym 0xffbe, F1) ...
> KeyRelease event, ... keycode 67 (keysym 0xffbe, F1) ...
>
> Of course everything on the desktop including the desktop itself
> thinks F1 means Help!, so I am deluged with unwanted help windows,
> dialogues, tabs.
>
> I did not manage to find a KeyPressRepeat option in the BIOS to turn
> off. Also, the key is still being generated at BIOS time - the BIOS
> itself thinks I keep asking for help too!
>
> ( addendum: In fact there seem to be two different events that are
> being seen, either one or the other, not both at once.
>
> The second one shows as a series of 'A' characters appearing unbidden
> at the shell prompt.
> 'od -b' shows that what us being received is actually a series of
> '^[[[A' character sequences: 033 133 133 101 033 133 133 101... )
>
> Do I have to assume my keyboard is broken, and can I do anything about
> it? I'm a bit reluctant to procure and then try to fit a new keyboard
> to the laptop.
>
>
>
--
Chris Dennis cgdennis@???
Fordingbridge, Hampshire, UK
