There’s no going back!

Rosemary

Correction: Apparently I said “right” when I meant “left”.   Which rendered my little joke incomprehensible.  Serves me right for writing my post too fast — and for trying to make dopey jokes!

Because the right-arrow  left-arrow key on my keyboard is broken.

So… Can’t go back.   Right?

Yeah.  You had to be there.

I sure hope I don’t have to buy an actual entire new laptop just to get my habitual navigation buttons back.

I popped off the key covers to see if I could see anything preventing the switch from contacting.   Only dust, which I removed, and which made no difference.

It might have something to do with the coffee I spilled on the arrow-keys the last time I was at Starbucks.

Just a hypothesis, of course.

ADDENDUM:  Apparently I forgot to mention that my computer is a laptop.   I realized this when people started telling me, “Hey, why don’t you just get a new keyboard?  They’re cheap!”

Because, hey, it’s a laptop, not a desktop.   Which I failed to mention.

If the lack of a back-arrow becomes too annoying, I can always go the route of using my laptop AS a desktop by plugging in an entire separate second keyboard… let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 29th, 2013 at 6:19 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “There’s no going back!”

  • Melissa Says:
    March 30th, 2013 at 12:09 pm

    Likely you can buy a new keyboard for it if the existing one is pooched. I just did that for a friend, it was about $40.

    • Rosemary Says:
      March 30th, 2013 at 9:48 pm

      Melissa —

      It’s a laptop, not a desktop computer.

      Back before laptops, I was known to go through keyboards pretty regularly, so I do know that one can replace them. I’ve done it lots.

      But on a laptop, the keyboard is built in.

      (As a side note, Ryoki Inoue, the world’s most prolific author, goes through a keyboard per month.)

  • Khavrinen Says:
    March 31st, 2013 at 1:27 am

    For some laptops, it is possible to replace the keyboard with only minor surgery — depending on where you are on the scale from “but I want to keep THIS one/money’s really tight” to “oooh, an excuse to upgrade to something new and shiny!”. Although to be honest, I’m making that claim based solely on articles I’ve read in computer magazines, and haven’t actually done it myself.

    Also, isn’t it the LEFT arrow key that goes back, and the right arrow forward? Unless your keyboard works the opposite direction from mine.

  • Lindig Says:
    March 31st, 2013 at 9:47 am

    Bummer. But you can buy an external keyboard and plug it in. Of course, then you have to lug it around, too. Or you can take it to a repair place and have them pop the case and see what the problem is. Might be an easy fix (we hope). Good luck.

  • Katrina Says:
    April 2nd, 2013 at 10:52 pm

    Laptop keyboards can be replaced, assuming that the manufacturer still has the right one in stock or that you can find one used. The labor involved in doing so ranges from a few minutes to a few hours.

    Another option is using a utility that lets you remap the broken key to another key that you don’t normally use.