My 79-year old mother's computer keyboard is malfunctioning.  I know
that sometimes she hits combinations of keys that thwart her in her
attempts to use her computer, but this is one I can't figure out...

She was typing in MS Word and knows that she hit "some of the keys by the
space bar, and maybe the shift key", and that a pop-up window
appeared, but she doesn't recall what it said, she just clicked
something to make it close--and now, when any key is pressed, there is
a beep, and no data is entered in Word, Excel, her scanning program or
Internet Explorer (the programs we tried...)

Toggle Keys is not checked under Accessibility Options.

How can I make it work again?

Thanks,

Kathy

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 26 May 2004 22:56 PDT

Kathy...

I would just shut down and reboot the computer, and see if
things are back to normal. Have you tried that?

---

Request for Question Clarification by palitoy-ga on 27 May 2004 01:57 PDT

Hello Kathy

I can think of a few things that might be a factor here.

1) Is one of the keys stuck?  Try pressing all the keys on the
keyboard to make sure they "feel" the same.  It may mean that the
keyboard needs a clean under the keys.  This is the most probable
answer in my opinion.

2) Is it the Microsoft Narrator program running?  This can be accessed
by Start->All Programs->Accessories->Accessibility

This can be configured to read aloud or beep I believe.

Perhaps a solution to this problem could be to restore the computer to
a time before the problem started happening (although this would have
no effect if it was a stuck key).  This would not lose any documents
that have been saved but would change back to older settings.  It
would also solve the problem without finding out what the answer is
(annoyingly!).

If these answers are helpful to you and help you solve the problem
please let me know and I can answer the question officially with a
full solution to how to rectify the problem.

---

Clarification of Question by gooddog56-ga on 27 May 2004 05:37 PDT

Sublime1-ga:

Yes, the computer has been rebooted, to no avail...thanks, though...

Palitoy-ga:

1. I will check for a stuck key--that may indeed be the problem.  

2.  I myself have invoked Narrator on occasion, through careless
keying (perhaps there is a certain heritability to all of this...),
but as I recall, it simply read aloud the keys I pressed instead of
beeping.  In looking at Accessibilty Options on her machine I did note
that the voice of Microsoft Sam was selected, so would expect to hear
that instead of beeps.  But I will check that too, as I did not
specifically check for Narrator last night.

3.  Yes, restoring to an earlier date would be an option, though a
direct fix to the problem would be preferable.

Thank you for your suggestions--I will visit her again this evening to
see if any of these work...

Bailiangyi-ga:

1 & 2:  Yes, I believe she may have inadvertently hit the Windows key
or the CTRL key and some other key simultaneously.  I have done so
myself on occasion, and rarely with good result...

3:  The Stuck Key Theory is seeming more likely, as I consider it, and
I will check for that this evening, and perhaps take a spare keyboard
over for a very quick fix if that is indeed the problem.

Thank you!

Hi,
 I have thought of 3 possible combination of keys that will cause a
pop-up in MS-Words.

1) She accidentally press the "Windows" button (shortcut for "Start" button)
- The program menu get display

2) She may accidentally hold the "ctrl" buttton while typing.
- example 1: "ctrl + s" is the shortcut for save
- example 2: "ctrl + f" is the shortcut for find
- example 3: "ctrl + w" is the shortcut for closing current document
- example 4: "ctrl + o" is the shortcut for opening new document
- example 5: "ctrl + p" is the shortcut for printing the document
- and etc
* There are many other "ctrl + key" combination which will create a pop-up window.

3) The worst case is that the keyboard's keys is not functioning and
one of the "ctrl" or "alt" or "window" key is stucked
- so when the key get stucked it will overload the key buffer. Since
the buffer is full already, there will always be a beep whenever a key
is pressed.

I hope one of the above solves the mystery. :)

Regards.

I did solve the problem last night--it was not a stuck key
(darn!)--instead she had managed to turn the filter keys on.  I had
not realized they would have that effect...But I suggested that in
future, any time she gets a pop-up window that she does not quite
understand, she should click "cancel" instead of "OK" to get it to
close...

Thanks to all for suggestions.