I'm
sure we've all had instances when something has happened with our
computers or cell phones that dumbfound and tighten our guts. We have
no idea what happened or what we did and even less on what to do
about it.
I
was typing something and suddenly it stopped. I could hit all the
keys I wanted and nothing happened!
Was
it my word processor? I went through every darn thing on the toolbar
at the top and there was nothing about a keyboard.
I
checked every single connection to the back of my desktop. I then
tried to do a search for keyboard using Cortana (I have Windows 10)
and nothing! No letters appearing in the search box.
The
mouse worked just fine so I went to the little windows icon and it
opened up. But, where did I go without being able to type anything?
I
clicked on restart and waiting to see what would happen.
After
the wait, the screen came where I have to sign in. Amazing! I could
type in my password in that screen.
Once
the desktop came up, my heart fluttered as I found the keyboard
working just fine.
What
a relief.
And
then...
Next
day, everything working fine. Then, all of a sudden – dead. As the
proverbial door nail. Nothing. Not a single letter on my word
document. Not a letter in Cortana or my browser. Opened the Settings
thing and tried to type in the search box – zip.
Thank
goodness for the mouse. Found the Dell Support site and the telephone
number. After an excruciating wait finally got a tech. My biggest
problem was understanding him. I'm pretty good at understanding
English spoken by a lot of people as their second language. But this
guy had me totally lost.
I
managed to finally get across to him what my problem was. He finally
got to the point in his book where he told me to turn off the
computer, holding the power button for 30 seconds. He then told me to
turn it back on, tapping the F2 key. Lo and behold, there were three
little icons on the lower right. The bottom line was getting me to
enter a Safe Mode.
Let
me make this short here. We spent at least thirty minutes doing all
sorts of stuff I almost instantly forgot. Going here there and
everywhere. He got me back to the Dell Support site and had me do
some stuff to set my PC to Windows 10 and then download something
called a BIOS. I have absolutely no idea what that it!
Anyhow,
got it downloaded and then ran it.
Still
no keyboard.
But
I, at least, had the latest of whatever it is I'm supposed to have.
Still
no keyboard.
We
at last got back to Settings. He had me click on Ease of Access and
then Keyboard. He had me click on On-Screen Keyboard and it appeared.
He then wanted me to go somewhere else and I clicked on Cortana by
mistake and …
The
keyboard worked! The On Screen Keyboard was still there, but suddenly
my real keyboard was working as if nothing had ever been wrong with
it.
I
kinda shut the guy down but not before learning he was in Manilla in
the Philippines! And, his first language is Tagalog and not Spanish
like most Philippinos. So I managed to get out of there and back to
my computer.
The
On Screen Keyboard still sits there in my task bar (or start up bar
or whatever they call it) but my regular keyboard is back.
Still
have no idea what happened. What on earth did I do to disconnect the
keyboard? What's gonna happen if it does something similar after
mid-January when my manufacturer's warranty runs out?
The
Dell support forum has probably the worst layout of any other I've
ever logged on to. The Windows support forum isn't much better. Ask a
question and almost never get an answer – if you can find your
question again.
Would
love to find a decent discussion forum for Windows and PCs in
General. Something to search for.
As
you all can surmise, the keyboard's working – although my fingers
still have a heck of a time finding the right keys – and I
frequently stare at that little icon at the bottom of my screen and
pray it's not gonna go blooey on me again.
Something
to think about – being able to type, I went to Cortana and typed in
“keyboard.” Got a wide variety of choices to include, “Keyboard,
touchpad, or mouse not working correctly.”
Ummm,
if they are not working correctly, how is one supposed to navigate to
this page? Seriously?
Keep
your fingers crossed.
