Big Problem!- Random Letters Appear When I Type

[Jimbo8927]

Hi,

Often when I type (in firefox, MS Word--anywhere) random letters will insert themselves, sometimes after the word I am typing, and sometimes it pastes the letters up higher in the text (often the beginning, but sometimes in the middle of the paragaph), moving the cursor with it (so as I continue typing, I'm typing in the wrong spot now).

I've noticed a few things, and I don't know if they are always the case. First, is if when I hit the letter "p," especially if twice in a row, the numlock light turns on, and generally the letters that appear (and in this order) are either "uio" or "qewr," and sometimes "qewroiu" which is interesting, given that the letters are all next to one another on the keyboard. "prweq" is also one that appears, as is "oiuea."

Basically it seems to always be letters from the top row of the keyboard.

More details:

I'm not accidentaly hitting the trackpad (I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop), as I disabled it earlier because the curser kept moving to different places in the text (because I kept accidently touching the pad).

Once again, "P" seems to be a definite problem key (when I just typed it in now half my post was deleted (I then undid it) and when I typed "type" more letters inserted themselves. And I can't mention how many random letters I deleted in the course of writing this post. ArgggghhhhhHH!!!

Does this sound like a virus? (I didn't think Linux had any/many viruses) or does it sound like my computer is just falling apart? (It's only from Jan. 2006)

Thanks

[michy99]

Sounds like a faulty keyboard to me. If you were on a desktop, I would suggest trying a different one, but since you are on a laptop, I don't know of an easy way to deal with it.

[wojox]

Have you tried cleaning the keyboard?
The keys you're refering to are pretty close together.
Go to the dell site and get the info on removing the keyboard cover maybe?

[Jimbo8927]

Have you tried cleaning the keyboard?
The keys you're refering to are pretty close together.
Go to the dell site and get the info on removing the keyboard cover maybe?

Yeah, I periodically use canned air to clean out the dust, etc. underneath the keys. I'll try and see if I can figure out how to remove the keyboard cover and see if that helps.

[synapsys]

Plug in an external keyboard (borrow one if you have to) and this will tell you right away.

Hardware or Software

[QIII]

Crud that gets behind the rubber cover over the contacts can cause similar problems. Have you spilled coffee or pop on it?

Best to have that sort of thing checked out at a shop, lest you should make things worse.

[Jimbo8927]

Plug in an external keyboard (borrow one if you have to) and this will tell you right away.

Hardware or Software

I'm a bit embarrassed to say I didn't even think of that.

I plugged in a keyboard for an old Mac and there's no problem at all. So that means the problem is with the hardware (laptop keyboard), correct?

QIII, I think you're probably right that this is something to save for a shop to work on. Or it's time to buy a new computer. I'm starting medical school in two weeks and needed a new computer, but had thought this one might last me another year. We'll see--maybe I'll just use an external keyboard for a while...

[synapsys]

The keyboards themselves are cheap, the labor is not. I would recommend calling a shop and saying "I have a dell blah blah laptop and the keys are sticking, how much would you charge me to replace/clean the keyboard?" Trust me, this happens a lot, I work on them all the time.

[i.mehrzad]

During installation, did you chose some other standard keyboard?? If that is the case then Sytem->Preferences->Keyboard maybe of use.

[Jimbo8927]

During installation, did you chose some other standard keyboard?? If that is the case then Sytem->Preferences->Keyboard maybe of use.

I chose the standard keyboard. This problem also didn't come up until about two months or so after I installed Ubuntu.

Thanks for your help Synapsys--I'll try and call a shop and see what can be done. It certainly is cheaper than buying a new computer, assuming the problem isn't deeper than the keyboard. Of course, I'll have to consider that I planned on replacing this computer in the next year or so anyway, so if the cost isn't insignificant, then it may make more sense to buy the new computer now. But I'll worry about that cost/benefit scenerio when I get there...

For now though, I'm in the process of moving from San Francisco to Chicago (the road trip starts tomorrow--with a weeklong stop in Central CA with the folks!), so I probably won't get around to acting on this for at least 2-3 weeks.

Thanks everyone for their help!