Computer went mad yesterday

Life Technology
1

Win XP Pro, Firefox, Thunderbird.

Lats night my screensaver wasn’t kicking in.

Clicking once on a desktop item caused it to remain highlighted until I clicked it again.

Open a folder and click on something, ditto. Click on something else and they were both highlighted. You had to manually unselect it.

Select a subfolder and it opened in a new window, which my comp is set not to do.

I opened an excel file, but was unable to select or modify any given cell.

Clicking on a link, at any site, caused it to open in a new tab. I couldn’t get back to the previous tab except by closing the new one.

I couldn’t enter text into any field on any site, eg to post a question here. The cursor just didn’t want to be there.

I could access mail and hit reply, but couldn’t type anything into the new message.

ctrl/alt/del did nothing. No way to see what else was running. I restarted a couple of times by hitting the button, to no avail.

I haven’t changed any settings at all, and the mouse works fine in my laptop. I disconnected the keyboard too, in case it’s sending some weird signal, but nothing changed.

Tried to navigate to system restore via the help and support thingy, but the link did nothing. (Didn’t think to try and get there through the programs list, d’oh!)

And tonight it’s fine. What’s going/gone on?

Is Gus fiddling with things again?

2

have you tried restarting yet?

3

Too much porn.

4

What did you do to it? The thing was mad at you …

5

Was your shift key stuck ?

6

This is sort of off topic but since you mentioned ctrl/alt/del you may be interested in this little program.

ProcXp

It has much more information about what is running on your system as well as a neat feature to google all the apps running. Anytime my system is acting weird or I feel it slow down for no reason this program will run. Including the odd sticky key.

It sounds like you may have had a sticky mouse button or key like BFM mentioned.

7

Yeah, what he said.

8

Yeah, what he said.[/quote]

Thought of that already.

Shouldn’t disconnecting the keyboard solve any problem emanating from the keyboard? Or does Mr Gates have some special “remember previous problems and cling to them” philosophy? I find it wholly believable.

Anyway, it did it again yesterday but it’s fine today. Sounds more like some kind of hardware problem than software. Maybe I should just get a new keyboard anyway.

9

Yeah, what he said.[/quote]

Thought of that already.

Shouldn’t disconnecting the keyboard solve any problem emanating from the keyboard? Or does Mr Gates have some special “remember previous problems and cling to them” philosophy? I find it wholly believable.

Anyway, it did it again yesterday but it’s fine today. Sounds more like some kind of hardware problem than software. Maybe I should just get a new keyboard anyway.[/quote]

Oops, missed that bit.
Well, it could be that you inadvertently activated “Sticky keys” (for example by tapping the shift key 5 times rapidly) and have now deactivated them. Or your computer could be slightly fucked.

10

Keyboards only send a signal when a key is pressed or released, it might have missed the “released” signal or something. Anyway, if you disconnect it, it certainly isn’t going to send anymore “released” signals, so it will think it is still down.

11

You’re not just a pretty face, are you?

Thanks

12

[quote=“Loretta”]You’re not just a pretty face, are you?[/quote]Indeed, I also have the body of a Greek god. probably one of the fat ones.

13

OK, I disconnected the keyboard before powering up. Everything worked fine, but I still couldn’t type anything into the text box.

What am I doing wrong?

14

[quote=“Loretta”]OK, I disconnected the keyboard before powering up. Everything worked fine, but I still couldn’t type anything into the text box.

What am I doing wrong?[/quote]You unplugged your keyboard. If you tried to plug it in afterwards it wouldn’t work because it plugs into a PS2 hole.

All that happened before it is that it thought your shift key was pressed when it wasn’t for some unknown reason. If it happens again press your shift keys and it should sort itself out.

15

Fluffy, I was joking. As in “I couldn’t type anything because my keyboard was unplugged.” It was a way of celebrating the current functional status of my computer.

Why do people take me so seriously sometimes? Or was it just Fluffy? Pretty, godly, helpful to a fault. And great with retsina.

16

Yeah! New keyboard and the problem seems to have gone away.

Thanks

17

Have you installed the right drivers ? Did you plug the power in correctly ?

18

No driver supplied. No power cable. Plug it in, restart computer, and voila: I once more have access to the assembled rantings and expertise of the forumosa peanut gallery. Happy!