Mon 19 Jun 2023
I did a requested Windows 11 update on my new laptop last night, and I thought all went well until I tried to use the keyboard and … nothing. Dead as a dinosaur. The laptop is new, but the wireless keyboard is well, ancient.
Spent most of the morning talking to some friendly fellows at Geek Squad but after more than an hour later, they gave up too. They said it was a hardware problem. Make an appointment and bring it in, they said.
I decided to say goodbye to it instead. The new laptop I have is tiny, and the keys are even smaller, and it’s been a long day. Off to Best Buy tomorrow to get a new keyboard, one large enough for me to be able to use. I’ve started this post three times already. I keep hitting keys I don’t mean to and which do all sorts of strange things I didn’t know computers ought to be able to do, including making everything I’ve written so far get wadded up and vanishing on me.
I’ll be back as soon as I can, but with some doctor’s appointments coming up, it may be a few days. Stay well, stay safe everyone!
June 19th, 2023 at 9:40 pm
Staying well is a good idea, Steve. You do it too.
June 20th, 2023 at 4:48 am
The wonders of Modern Technology strike back!
June 20th, 2023 at 6:14 am
Did you try sactrificing a goat to the Windows 11 gods? I understand that usually works.
June 20th, 2023 at 11:55 am
My first thought, Jerry, is that you had to be kidding, but than I realized you are probably right. Too late now.
June 20th, 2023 at 10:47 am
We finally bought a new Mac last year after our old (2010) model became increasingly outdated. After year seven or eight, it was unable to download newer software needed for minor tasks like, oh, connecting to various websites that we needed to visit. The techs at the brick and mortar Apple Store transferred all the files on the old Mac to the new one, so we didn’t lose any legacy Word files or photos. My wife and I couldn’t have done that ourselves. As an added bonus, we found that techs who know PCs and Microsoft inside and out aren’t necessarily familiar with Macs.
June 20th, 2023 at 11:52 am
As another example, cars have become giant computers, and there’s no way ordinary people are able to fix them if anything goes wrong.
June 20th, 2023 at 11:42 am
I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse combination a few years back. There was just one transmitter to plug into the laptop and it worked pretty seamlessly. Didn’t cost much either. On the other hand the wireless keyboard was no more practical than typing on the laptop using a large cutting board to balance the laptop and mouse on.
But I was actually going to talk about my phone, a fairly recent iPhone, Held vertically the keypad is incredible small, and all touch screen. But I find it easy to type on because it guesses what you’re trying to type and displays the choices just above the keypad. When it comes to editing it’s not very convenient but I’m amazed how easy it is to draft something on it.
I suspect your problem is that your new laptop does not support the frequency that your old keyboard worked on. Like how old phones can’t access the cell towers like they used to.
June 20th, 2023 at 11:48 am
That’s a possibility that hadn’t occurred to me, but like so many explanations I have thought of, it doesn’t answer the question as to why everything was fine before the updates and things went wrong immediately after.
June 20th, 2023 at 3:30 pm
‘Updates’ are frequently an IT euphemism for planned obsolesence.
If only the opponents of euthanasia would oppose euthanizing old operating systems.
As an aside, I knew a teacher in Korea who picked the discussion topic of ‘euthanasia’ for her class and was surprised by how popular it was. About halfway thru the discussion she realized they were talking about youth in Asia.
June 22nd, 2023 at 8:47 pm
My woes involved moving and not having Wi-Fi for several days waiting for a green broadband cable to make it through the mail from AT&T.
Finally arrived four days late.
Hope your situation is better soon.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:27 pm
Good to hear you’re back online. Hope the rest of the move wasn’t as traumatic.
I bought a new keyboard from Amazon, or my son-in-law did, and it arrived overnight. Hooked it up today, and *knock on wood* all is well. Now to clear up all all of the stuff backed up, and I’m back in business.