It doesn’t take much to completely derail one’s plans for an evening. I got home from work, fully prepared to start my post for today (yes, I write them the night before) as soon as I was done with checking my email and so forth.
Ah, life…
One of the cats thought The Husband’s keyboard made the perfect place to hairball. Unfortunately, the keyboard is one of those models that totally craps out at the first hint of liquid between the keys. I like the model in question for ergonomics, but I had to move to something else just because it was too damn much having to replace it every few months when one of the cats found a new way to get liquid all over it and kill the connections. Crappy cheap engineering, biting your butt at the worst possible time – always fun.
Since he actually wanted to use said computer, The Husband toddled off to the store to get himself a new keyboard. And then the fun began…
First the keyboard didn’t register. Then it did, but didn’t work. Then… he rebooted and the real entertainment commenced.
You guessed it. The computer booted up and then refused to accept that anything except the misbehaving and unusable puked-upon keyboard on the login screen. Cue much searching from me and him to try to find a solution. And total lack of success. The keyboards – all of them – work just fine at the bios and pre-load sequence. They also work if he logs into the Linux install on that system. Windows? Not this side of the universe.
So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few hours. Trying to find an answer that won’t require blowing away the operating system and data, trying multiple keyboards to find one that the damn machine would accept.
And ALLELUIA! The ancient PS2 keyboard did the trick. Now it’s a search for drivers for the new keyboard – since it didn’t come with any and I don’t throw install CDs away (15 minutes later… drivers found and The Husband is attempting to get a working keyboard and mouse on his system). Somehow I don’t think I’m going to be focusing on anything else tonight.
Mad Genius Club 
59 responses to “Derailment”
I once had a computer problem where I kept getting bluescreens. I tried reinstalling Windows after moving all of my data out, but that failed too. So I had to use Linux. Linux kept getting similar errors too, but it kept going without cutting off.
When it came time to restore Windows with a recovery disk I bought, I reinstalled Windows, but then I got bluescreens again. I was wondering how that happened — certainly I didn’t have malware already!
The problem turned out to be bad RAM. I just replaced the bad stick with an old one and I never had a bluescreen since.
As for your keyboard problem, it might be a bad USB slot. I bought a powered USB strip and attached it to my one reliable slot to get around that problem. Now I have seven reliable slots.
This problem was more a case of the new keyboard not coming with driver software and *requiring* the proprietary drivers to work. Fortunately, I still had the install CD for the drivers from when I got a similar breed of keyboard a while back.
Bad RAM can do horrible things to a system. I had one system crap out with bad RAM where it would just reboot randomly.
Which is why I kept my old RAM when I replaced that RAM at an earlier time (it was one of the new sticks that went bad.) I simply replaced the bad new stick with a good old stick to fix my bluescreen problem.
That works if you have the stick.
Of course when this happened, it was the kind of RAM that threw a hissy fit if you had mismatched sticks.
I see. Thankfully, I didn’t have that problem. The RAM in my computer has two different sizes, and there are no issues.
Ah, the joys of hardware. Glad your keyboard problem seems to be (hopefully) solved. *grin*
Remember to make proper sacrifices to the hardware gods regularly so they don’t become wroth with you and talk to the cat gods. I am certain there is some collusion there.
Well, computers and animals both can sense fear. And once that happens, you (and your data) are toast. See, this would never happen with an Ap—&#(……………
Hahahahahahahahaha. (cue hysterical laughter mandating sedation and that oh so special white coat with the long sleeves)
I know exactly what Kate’s talking about. But with me, it was my iPad a week or so ago. It suddenly decided it wasn’t going to accept my password. Nope, no way. Password wrong. You didn’t enter it right. Ooops, you’ve hit the wrong keys too many times in a row. You are now locked out. Oooh, now we’ll give you a brick.
I tried everything. iTunes didn’t recognize it. Switched to another computer, just in case I’d forgotten which one I’d synced with. Nope. Not that one either. Nope, not even the Macbook Air. GAH. Damn you, Steve Jobs!
Finally, on a non-Apple site, I found a link back to Apple and a very well-buried page that told what to do. Of course, it wound up resetting the damned thing back to factory defaults. Color me not happy, especially when there was no reason for the password not to work. It was the same darned one I’d had since I got the iPad.
Grrrrrrrr. One full evening of work lost to chasing down the problem, never finding the solution and simply resetting to factory defaults and then updating the iPad and reinstalling my apps. Grrrrrrr.
I feel your pain. Damn I feel your pain.
Amanda, did you try typing your password into the username box, just so you could see if it looked right? It might not have enabled you to fix the problem, but it would have given more info to possibly find a less nuclear solution.
I did. It was right. The iPad decided it was wrong. There was much application of my head to desk, wall, floor and any other hard surface I could find. Finally, the nuclear option was all I had — either that or start using the iPad as nothing more than a paperweight.
Blech.
That’s now quite what I said at the time. ;-p
Regarding your data, do what that old rap song said — “Back That Thang Up.”
Since there was “only” one day’s of work lost, guess regular backups were involved.
Had a similar incident with a college project. My portable hard drive went bad one day, and the only reason I didn’t lose the whole project was because I backed it up online the previous day.
My official position on the OS religious wars is 8-bit MS-DOS.
It lets me say ‘You will not have a problem with N on 8-bit DOS’, generally because N does not work at all on 8-bit DOS.
I shudder at the idea of getting USB Keyboards and especially USB Mice to work on 8-bit DOS.
Er. Yeah. USB anything and 8-bit DOS doesn’t sound like a terribly happy pairing. Just saying…
Oh yeah. Hardware is at least as bad as software. You have to sacrifice the goat, keep blood away from the keyboard, and make sure the cats get the tasty wobbly bits. It’s all very awkward.
Needs more minions. Or acolytes, I forget which. Incense tends to bog the fans after a while, though, so buy those little cans of air in bulk!
What did you do to annoy Murphy? [Wink]
I breathed wrong.
Gotta hold your mouth right, too.
Computers are nice. When they work.
Exactly. Very very nice.
Yep.
Oh, for some time my older Windows XP machine was giving me problems and my computer guru could not find any reason for the problems.
So I had enough extra money a few of months ago and purchased a new computer.
I had it all set up but it wouldn’t turn on. It turned out that I didn’t get the power cable completely in.
So the “idiot in front of the keyboard” was the problem. [Embarrassed Grin]
PEBKAC and ID10T errors are most of them – and trust me, I’ve committed my share and then some.
After a while you get in the habit of double and triple-checking everything including the power cables…
Of course I had the time where most of my USB peripherals refused to work. Checked they were all plugged in to the hub properly. Yep. Checked the cables leading to the hub. All good. Checked the device power. All plugs seated nicely on the powerboard. So why in hell isn’t it working?
Get up to check the connections at the hub again, and happen to notice the extension lead isn’t plugged in. Oooooops….
Husband’s department head in the Navy– who, I kid you not, majored in Cheer Leading– did this in the Bridge with basically everyone and division Chief there.
Thankfully, husband DIDN’T just plug it back in and turn it on, he fully “unplugged” it, reseated all the cards and then “tried it.”
Much mumble-talk about how the vibrations sometimes do that and such. (Well, they DO….)
Oh yea– I know about vibrations 😉 same problem with tubes, cans, and other stuff in Navy equipment.
The Spouse is trying to deal with the local water company’s site, and has discovered it is touchy. Wants you to do things without explaination. The air was being rent with colorful puntuations. Now it is just a low level growl. That’s just today, so far.
I am beginning to think that the whole world of computers is going to gain my ‘love-hate’ designation.
Oh, yeah. It would probably be hate-hate if the damn things weren’t so useful.
Exactly.
Computers will free us from mundane tasks, speed our labors, and eliminate paper in the office.
eliminate paper in the office
Especially in Federal govermental offices that are required to keep back up paper copies of all email on file.
But of course! Something might happen to the computer. Unless you’re the IRS, of course. Then you can make your own rules.
Whenever I encounter a “computer issue” in the real public world, such as grocery scanners that refuse to accept item codes, my smiling comment is always “Aha, technology making our lives easier!” Usually that at least gets the clerk on my side, knowing I don’t blame them for their employer’s screwed-up machines.
I’ve built almost all of my own desktop computers since 1981, which spares me from cursing at useless tech support in New Delhi and leaves me cursing myself instead. Well, I can take it. The top mechanical/machine issues are usually bad drivers, bad power supply, bad RAM, or cooling issues. The top non-mechanical issue is user error (refer back to tech support from the builder …).
The Spouse once commented that it always seemed that the ones who bought the hard and soft ware were not the ones who had to use it.
The people who buy it are usually the type who get suckered in by flashy sales pitches. And precious few places that sell it will let you trial something for long enough to know it’s going to do what you need.
Or flashy sales people (usually but not always female selling to male)….
ROFL. I remember doing a new-facility design for a medical group once as a consultant back in the Stone Age (1992?) and asking them where their records storage space was supposed to be. Because medical in 1992 generated TONS of paper records you’re supposed to keep forever. They said “We’re going to have a paperless office!”
After I finished laughing myself silly, I talked them into allotting space for records storage. We’re still looking for that paperless office.
Oh yes, I have as much paper piled up as I did before I went “pure” digital. And I still take all my research notes in longhand, because 1) archive tables are not set up for computer use, 2) no plugs, 3) I’d have to print most of them out eventually anyway.
The thing is, even today people usually completely miss that the space required for computer workstations and servers and such is at least equivalent to the space required for equivalent dead-tree records storage. Yes, the type of space required tends to shift from back-office to front-office requirements, but overall it hasn’t really shrunk, With technology making information-handling so much cheaper, we handle so much more info. If you handle twenty times as much info and each bit only generates a tenth as much paper, you are STILL doubling required space, not counting the space for work stations and servers.
We’ve had people tell us libraries no longer need extra space because of computers and e-books. Um, no. Wrong. Those claims always come from people with near-zero understanding of libraries and information technology, traditional or modern. Even with compact shelving for reference items and such, space requirements still keep growing as libraries trend towards collaborative community spaces and e-learning centers. And existing collections do not magically digitize themselves or become worthless because they’re not digital. [/exasperation rant]
Indeed, do NOT get me started on “you only need computer space because everything’s digital,” or “Just get the electronic version of that journal” and “Why keep back-issues when it’s all on [subscription-only database with paywall of doom].” It brings out this historian’s inner Conan the Librarian (a bit like the librarian at the Unseen University, but with a shorter temper).
Subscription=only databases with the paywall of doom are evil. Most of the ones I’ve had to interact with are also so damn slow to search that’s it’s faster to go through the stacks and find the physical copy of hte back issues you want.
Oh my yes. Oh very my yes.
Related: “We don’t need libraries any more because everything is free on the internet!”
Facepalm headdesk.
The advantages of the “paperless office” is actually pretty big:
1) I can usually reach the “paperwork” without having to pack it around
2) Even if someone else just had it, I can find it instantly
3) WHEN I have to use the physical copies, I don’t have to try to figure out the handwriting of someone who was in a hurry 15 years ago.
Use to work in a Calibration lab, and a lot of the documents we had it was impossible to tell what year they were from, what item they were for, or what the “special calibration note” at the bottom might be. Navy’s so far behind that we only got rid of microfitches in … ’04, I think it was?
Not only that, nothing provides enough monitor space to take notes while you’re reading one thing on the computer and cross-checking it against three other sources on the same computer. I’ve got a dual monitor setup at work, and I’m usually also taking notes in longhand while I work.
I believe the paperless office can be found somewhere near Atlantis, in back of the realtor who sells beachfront land in Nevada, pigs with wings and software with no EULA.
And if you believe that I have some beachfront land in Nevada you might be interested in.
Kate, there are some local politicians here who would make prime sales prospects for you. 😉
Since I live in Nevada… you’d have to talk to me lol
The story I have about my recent computer woes is more one of my own failings than the actual technical issues.
I most likely could have fixed it, even with my own weakness, had I put in the time expanding my knowledge in the proper areas.
There’s always the question of whether it’s worth your while to spend that time. Sometimes being able to and finding it worthwhile to do it are two very different things.
Yea– I hate it when a good plan craps out. And then you find yourself in the computer hardware/software black hole. Good luck. *wink
Thank you. I think that particular black hole is the blackest black hole there is.
Yep– if you are technology abled, you can be there for days. A disabled — forever
The driver software and a reboot did the trick – The Husband now has a working system again, and is much more relaxed about life in general. There are still dark mutterings about cats and puking, though.
I have known people who Saran wrapped their keyboards.
I just built a new computer, and hadn’t built one in so long that I didn’t know there was now a separate power connector for the CPU, so I set it up, turned it on, and the fans turned, so I thought it was ok. But when I came back later to install an OS, I got nothing. I took out everything and it still wouldn’t bring up a BIOS screen, so I thought the (brand new) motherboard or CPU was bad, until I looked for suggestions in a forum and found a mention of the extra connector.