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My laptop (Compaq Presario) is inserting "\" characters at will whenever I hit a key on the right side of the keyboard. It's super annoying to have to go back and delete them all the time.

It also effs anything I enter into a form, because it's quite likely to put a "\" in there when I hit the return key.

Is this the sort of thing I can fix or do I just buy another laptop like always?

-steve

[insert joke about lack of issues with analog pen and paper]

sorry, i'm no help.

on the other hand, i just returned from dropping off my keyboard to be recycled at STAPLES®. my cat has taken to digging into any keyboard left unguarded. the laptop i'm on now has half of a C key (the rest of them having been recovered intact from the floor), and the keyboard i just dropped off had no E key, and no structure behind the shift key. the rest of the keys had been reinstalled after being recovered from under the book case.

actually, in looking again at the keyboard, and seeing that you're talking about \ , and not /, i'd bet there's some shit in there under the keys, either at the sensor level, or deeper (physically). i'd bet no one is more qualified to open it up than you or greg.

what model do you have?

Did you try cleaning it or something? I've had a couple of fucked keyboards like that in the past, and I pulled them out and put them back together and they ended up working fine after that.

If you google for Laptop repairs/refurbishment in your area there will definitely be a couple of nerds who will be able to fix it for much less than the cost of a new unit. Worth considering.

If you're feeling brave and you've backed up all the essential data already, you can look for a guide on how to fix it yourself. Such as this one.

I'm guessing that the only "essential data" on Steve's laptop is about a million hands worth of notes and info in his PokerTracker database. I'm also guessing that that information is worth many times what his computer is worth. So, Steve, whatever the hell you do please take Tommy's advice and back up that database on an external HD, another machine, iPod, whatever. You'll puke if you lose that stuff.

Laptop keyboard failure seems to be pretty common. I think most manufacturers have realized this and intentionally designed the keyboards to be easily serviced/replaced.

However, your problem may not be the keyboard. perhaps something is wrong with the mainboard, or perhaps the driver got corrupted. It could even be a mechanical problem with the keyboard.

I would suggest plugging a regular old desktop type of keyboard into the laptop (so you will still have control) and uninstall and reinstall the laptop keyboard driver.

I second the idea that there's something physically wrong in there.

If you haven't already tried the upside down-y shake-y fix do that. If no joy a can of compressed air and nozzle squirting the shit out of the problem area keys.

After that either geeks in a shop or an external keyboard until its fixed/replaced.

steve wrote:Is this the sort of thing I can fix or do I just buy another laptop like always? -steve

I had opted for an additional service contract when I bought my dell laptop, which comes into effect when the one year guarantee period is over & luckily that came into use a few months ago. I had the exact same problem as yours.

It's just the keypad...no need to change the laptop. Somebody from compaq (customer service) must be able to help you out. They will probably ask you to mail it to them & should be back within a week or leser. I did not read the other posts. Hoping it's not the same.

& all this assuming you have a physical problem with the keyboard as it was in my case, used to get stuck while depressing the keys. Just edited my post after seeing Dave's post below.

Reinstall the keyboard driver, if it has one. I had one of those absolutely shit Vaio laptops, and I had to do this several times. XP's updates didn't notice I was using a laptop and replaced the drivers with standard windows shit that didn't work. Warning! This Driver is not recognised by Microsoft! and all that.

If that doesn't work, dig about with ruler and a paperclip to see if a bit of drool or nosh fell in during hard nights of PRF-boarding, WOWing, internet snap, or whatever.

Anyone else suffer with a Sony Vaio? Jesus christ. I lost the AC adapter chord, and the only way I could replace it was to buy something from them that cost nearly £100. Oh yeah, and the drawer that covered the floppy driver/memory card shattered.