Dell laptop keyboard problem

[Guest]

My wife's laptop has a problem with the keyboard, which just started
recently. It's a Dell Inspiron 1200 running Win XP Service Pack 2. She
tells me she doesn't know what she did, but she thinks she 'hit several
buttons at once in and around the backspace button'. What happens, if you
open Word, for example, is that pressing the 'b' button displays a 'b ' (b
and a space). Pressing the 'f' displays an 'f\'. Pressing the 'g' opens the
Go To dialog box. Pressing the 't' backspaces one character and displays a
't'. Pressing the 'v' displays a 'v' and does a new line. Pressing the
backspace backspaces one character and displays a 't'. Pressing the enter
displays a 'v' and does a new line.
I've turned off hotkeys. An external keyboard functions perfectly. The
character map looks fine. I've set and reset the Regional and Language
Options to English (United States). I've tried doing a System Restore, it
doesn't seem to want to work.
Frankly, I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Richard in AZ]

My wife's laptop has a problem with the keyboard, which just started
recently. It's a Dell Inspiron 1200 running Win XP Service Pack 2. She
tells me she doesn't know what she did, but she thinks she 'hit several
buttons at once in and around the backspace button'. What happens, if you
open Word, for example, is that pressing the 'b' button displays a 'b ' (b
and a space). Pressing the 'f' displays an 'f\'. Pressing the 'g' opens the
Go To dialog box. Pressing the 't' backspaces one character and displays a
't'. Pressing the 'v' displays a 'v' and does a new line. Pressing the
backspace backspaces one character and displays a 't'. Pressing the enter
displays a 'v' and does a new line.
I've turned off hotkeys. An external keyboard functions perfectly. The
character map looks fine. I've set and reset the Regional and Language
Options to English (United States). I've tried doing a System Restore, it
doesn't seem to want to work.
Frankly, I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

The laptop keyboard is a printed wiring board with a wire grid pattern. It basically responds as it
should when a horizontal and vertical grid are connected under each key. However, if the grid were
damaged and had shorts, any weird combination could occur. Unfortunately, I doubt you could fix the
grid and may be looking at a new keyboard or continue using the external keyboard. It is not a
Windows problem as demonstrated by the external keyboard.

 

[Richard in AZ]

My wife's laptop has a problem with the keyboard, which just started
recently. It's a Dell Inspiron 1200 running Win XP Service Pack 2. She
tells me she doesn't know what she did, but she thinks she 'hit several
buttons at once in and around the backspace button'. What happens, if you
open Word, for example, is that pressing the 'b' button displays a 'b ' (b
and a space). Pressing the 'f' displays an 'f\'. Pressing the 'g' opens the
Go To dialog box. Pressing the 't' backspaces one character and displays a
't'. Pressing the 'v' displays a 'v' and does a new line. Pressing the
backspace backspaces one character and displays a 't'. Pressing the enter
displays a 'v' and does a new line.
I've turned off hotkeys. An external keyboard functions perfectly. The
character map looks fine. I've set and reset the Regional and Language
Options to English (United States). I've tried doing a System Restore, it
doesn't seem to want to work.
Frankly, I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

Here is a quick link to a new keyboard http://tinyurl.com/2a7uop
They are not that hard to replace.

 

[Elmo]

My wife's laptop has a problem with the keyboard, which just started
recently. It's a Dell Inspiron 1200 running Win XP Service Pack 2. She
tells me she doesn't know what she did, but she thinks she 'hit several
buttons at once in and around the backspace button'. What happens, if you
open Word, for example, is that pressing the 'b' button displays a 'b ' (b
and a space). Pressing the 'f' displays an 'f\'. Pressing the 'g' opens the
Go To dialog box. Pressing the 't' backspaces one character and displays a
't'. Pressing the 'v' displays a 'v' and does a new line. Pressing the
backspace backspaces one character and displays a 't'. Pressing the enter
displays a 'v' and does a new line.
I've turned off hotkeys. An external keyboard functions perfectly. The
character map looks fine. I've set and reset the Regional and Language
Options to English (United States). I've tried doing a System Restore, it
doesn't seem to want to work.
Frankly, I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

Being a laptop, it's possible the key combination turned on a keyboard
function. Usually you'll see an led turned on that will show what Fn
(function) was set.

It's also possible an accessibility option was invoked. In Control
Panel, Accessibility Options, disable Sticky keys.

 

[Mick Murphy]

You have nor included any other posts with the problem outlined!
So, no-one knows what the symtoms are!