Kinds of keyboards?

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Has anyone tried one of those round ball keyboards?

Is it possible to special order a keyboard? I want a split board with a track ball in the middle and the function keys on the left.

Maybe I can figure out how to keep the one I have working a while longer. It freezes up. It shows the power lights very faintly and the diagnostics say the keyboard is functioning properly but nothing works. Simple unplugging and replugging doesn’t always work even with a reboot. But does sometimes. I am thinking it is the connection. Probably the socket in the tower. I haven’t opened the box to see if the socket can be changed. Is this a possibility?

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Well the easiest way to check the connector is to get hold of/borrow another keyboard off a known good system. If the symtoms persist then its obviously the connector in the case is suspect.
Ewan

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..the next bit probably ranks as the century’s most stupid question, for which I apologise, but does your keyboard have a battery? Mine does, and it has to be changed occasionally.

Rgds

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The simple questions are often the most important. I know of many cases where technicians assuming that the obvious have been checked have spent hours on some problem to discover that a cable is unplugged, program not installed or other such cause

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No battery in kb. Kb from old system didn’t work when I first tried it. did work when I tried it the second time. Made me suspect not my kb. Tried my kb again and it is working. All of which seems to point to loose connection. No reason it should develop a problem. There is no stress on the cable and the back of the tower is located so nothing can bump the connections. Maybe just vibrations?

But this whole machine has been straight out of hades. I would have returned it to vendor except he is in jail for computer fraud. No Joke.

Anyway IF it goes down again I will open the case and see if there is any obvious loose parts to the connection. I don’t even know if it has internal cables or boards or what. Hopefully I won’t have to find out.

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Another obvious thing to check is accumulated crud inside the keyboard. Turn it upside down and shake vigorously and/or use compressed air. I am always amazed (and appalled) at all the junk that falls out of my keyboards when I do that. This treatment has fixed more than one keyboard (and the same one several times) with symptoms similar to yours.

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After my cat dumped a cola on a keyboard I started buying the plastic skins for KB. Works great for keeping things out from under the keys. Even so I did try turning and shaking.

Well it is working now so I have time to look for my special layout.

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I’m always dropping garbage in my keyboard. Where can I get those plastic skins you mentioned?

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Product by Fellowes: Custom Keyguard #99680.
Purchased from Staples – $16.99
2-3 weeks delivery

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I usually buy them at Office Depot – local office/computer supply store. But I would bet that it would be just as easy on line since you do have to send them the exact model number to get one that fits.

They cost about the same as a cheap KB but mine has saved me several times.

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Thanks guys, I’ll track down one to fit mine.

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Years ago I had a footswitch that connected between the keyboard and the CPU (I think maybe it was a 386 running Win 3.1). Nice thing about the footswitch, which looked like a dictation control, was that one side was a “shift” key and the other side was a “control” key. After a short time getting used to it, I really found it useful. Best I can tell, no one makes anything like it. Perhaps it went the way of the center mouse button, but I sure miss it.

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