Input device problems

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No, for once, I don't have these problems but, I thought that I'd share the experience for those who may come across them.

Awhile ago, I was having trouble with my PC. As I tried to use it, menus and programs would seemingly spontaneously open. I couldn't figure it out and couldn't stop it. It made using the PC virtually impossible. I asked around and finally found out it was my mouse. The poor thing was being yanked and pulled so much and it's cord has been pulled tight and caught behind the table it was on. Eventually, some of the leads must have broken resulting in such an unpredicable response.

What reminded me of this was an experience I had yesterday. I was trying to logon to this forum but random characters were being inserted along with my username. I got called away from the PC by the wife or one of my kids, so left the problem for later. One of my sons got steaming hot when he couldn't negotiate one of his games because of random input from the keyboard.

I opened a text document and tried typing a sentence or two. Some keys didn't work at all and some inserted not only the character I was typing but also a seemingly random number or letter. I checked and sure enough, the cable was pulled tight enough to snap. Same problem but different input device. I tried a replacement keyboard and the problem vanished.

Just thought I'd through that little diagnostic tidbit in for whoever might need to know it.

 

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I have this problem also...

After months of complex troubleshooting my pc (bighamish) I have found that the random input generator is a small but cute programme called Eleanor. She sits as a TSR prog on Sandy's lap and then sniffs out the keyboard IRQ the bashes away in a totally random manner till Sandy issues the NO command.

 

I think you'll find that the NO command diminishes in efficacy as the days, weeks and months pass, Sandy !

Also, I'm led to believe that this particular problem will lead, in the medium-term, to requiring to purchase the Random Input Device a terminal of its own, and long-term, removal altogether of the Device, at least to a remote site, but one which can still be administered (primarily through financial re-investment).

Technical support, although obviously freely available on your part will almost never be sought, as the Device will by now have 110% understanding of the Kernel of anything placed before it - until the service is due on the Transport mechanism you provided for it ....then, refer back to the financial section above, and enter endless loop ............... :roll:

 

...is, I've discovered, cat hair.

No, I'm not kidding. On occasion I do find it in myself to be serious.

Not that it ever lasts long.

Anyway: being a bit of a games retro fan, I was playing X-Wing Alliance and tried to switch viewpoint from cockpit to gun turret - but instead my shield strength was reduced! Given that I had a dozen TIE Interceptors firing hell for leather at me, plus a bloody great Star Destroyer, plus incoming torpedoes from a flight of TIE Bombers, this was not a good thing!

I thought at first the game's files had been corrupted somehow, so I gave up temporarily and decided to do a bit of writing in Word. And discovered that pressing certain keys caused the PC to output other characters, e.g. pressing k gave me an m as well! Only when I partly disassembled the keyboard, discovered all the cat hair, fluff and who knows what else in there, and removed it, did the keyboard start behaving again. So it seems fluff and cat hair are electrically conductive. My own fault for allowing my gorgeous British Shorthair Tricolour Tortoiseshell cat to walk all over my desk...

 

I know that motherboard manufacturers are always looking for a way to cram more circuits onto a mobo and daughter cards more cheaply...I wonder if...