I press keys and junk comes up ??

Hello, I just bought a used Toshiba Satellite A215-S4807 a couple weeks ago. All was working fine until last night when I was trying to type on it, both in emails and word processing program. Either there was no response at all to certain letters, or when I would press "m" I would get "m;'" and/or other junk characters. Also the the caps lock would come on by itself. I shut the computer off a couple times and tried again. Then later it stopped doing it, but then started again. I tried it again this morning and it was doing it on and off.

Has anybody had this happen? If so, what is the problem and what can I do?

Thanks.

 

check to make sure you didn't change the region and language settings in control panel

 

No, I didn't change any settings, it's set to English United States. But thanks. I just tried the computer and the keys don't work at all now, absolutely nothing!! Help!!

 

Did you perform a clean install of Windows after you bought it? Or is it still in the same state as it was when you got it?

 

When I bought it a few weeks ago, the guy who owned it had taken off Windows Vista and did a clean install of Windows XP Professional. It was fine until last night when it started doing this. Thanks.

 

Do you have a good anti-virus istalled cause that happened to me a while back, come to find out I had a hacker screwing with my machine.

 

Yes, I do, and I run it all the time. It's called Kapersky. I was wondering if that could be the problem, a virus or something that got through. Sometimes things come up and say "do you want to allow this" and I don't know whether to or not.

What did you do to fix yours?

Thanks. (BTW, I'm typing this on my other computer!)

 

Did he give you the Windows XP PRO disc? It would be wise to perform a full installation. If the guy thinks himself funny he might have slipped a keylogger in there that is going haywire. It isn't unheard of for people to do that.

As another poster said it might be a virus. If you have been running anti-virus software you're probably all set though.

When you're computer boots up try going into the BIOS (by striking whichever F key it specifies at the bottom of the first black screen when you turn on your computer ~for example, mine is F2). Once in the BIOS use the arrow keys to navigate around. If the keyboard won't respond there, then it is most likely an issue with the hardware itself rather than software. A word of caution: make sure you don't change any settings in the BIOS! If you accidentally do, just make sure that when exiting the BIOS you chose, "exit BIOS without saving changes".

 

No, he didn't give me any XP Pro disks.

I just tried going into Bios. It let me get into it, then I pressed the cursor down key once, it went down to Language, and then wouldn't let me cursor anywhere else. I tried to hit escape and it won't do anything. So I don't even know how to get out of it short of turning it off.

Thanks, Greg.

 

Oh boy. That is a crumby situation . Assuming you haven't already, you are probably all set just shutting it off. I some suppose people wouldn't recommend it, but I have shut off my computer from the BIOS hundreds of times on dozens of computers and never had a negative result from it.

If you couldn't use the keyboard in the BIOS, then I would assume there is a physical problem with the keyboard.

The guy who sold it to you, first of all, should have included the Windows disc. But that is a little irrelevant since it seems to be busted hardware.

It couldn't hurt to contact the seller and tell him that there is this issue. However, I wouldn't expect him to take care of it... Most sellers consider this type to sale to be "as is".

I checked out the Toshiba support site thinking maybe this was a BIOS issue with your particular laptop. There are several BIOS updates, but none of them mentioned this problem.

At this point the best advice I could think of is taking it to be serviced by a professional. However, maybe someone else here can come up with another solution.

I'm curious... How much did you pay for the laptop? Did you buy it from a stranger online/in person or from a store? Was it specifically advertised as coming with Windows XP? Also, on the bottom of the laptop there should be a Windows Key. Along side the Key does it say Windows XP or Windows Vista or nothing?

 

It finally had a delayed reaction and I was able to exit, then the keyboard let me use the cursor to say “exit without saving changes” and then it booted up. But now the internet doesn’t even work (and the wireless says it’s connected). The thing is, sometimes the keyboard works and sometimes not. But lately, hardly at all.

I paid $600 for it, found it on Craigslist from a local guy here. He even works at Circuit City nearby and told me to stop in any time, which I did when he forgot to load the Kapersky virus detection on it (which he gave me a CD for it right then). But he acted kind of funny when I came in, even though he said it was fine to stop by ... and then I emailed him and he hasn’t answered. I will try to contact him to see if he knows what’s wrong. He did tell me it came with Windows Vista and he loaded XP on it himself. I don’t see anything about a Windows key on the bottom, although it does say Windows Vista on the bottom.

Thanks again for trying to help, Greg.

 

I get the same problem . When I hit a "BKSp" then the sign "=" display .
when I type "W" key, then display "sw2" and "find" menu display . When I
"t" key then "gt 5" display ... It is very strange . Does someone has experiece
like this ? how to repair ? OR motherboard has a problem ... please
give me a advise . Thank you .

 

Have you tried an external keyboard? Just to eliminate the possibility that the onboard device is faulty.

 

Yes, I tried an external keyboard, and it works perfectly with that. I was a little relieved that it wasn't some virus or some other software problem. It turns out that the laptop is still under warranty (the guy I bought it from transferred it to me), so I called Toshiba, told them what the problem was, and they had me ship it to them for repair under warranty. So I guess I'm lucky. So I guess it is a hardware problem, the keyboard must have gone out. Over the course of just a couple days it got worse and worse until I could hardly type anything at all.

Buile, when I get the laptop back from Toshiba I'll come back to the site and let you know what repairs were done (if there is any documentation that says that). I don’t suppose you have a warranty??

 

I'm glad to hear it all worked out for you SamGirl. Hopefully the Toshiba techs fix it up nice for you.

 

Yeah, hopefully. Thanks again for all your help, Greg.

 

Try pressing the Fn key and then look for the number lock.

 

(My system did work with external keyboard. I think it is due to hardware
problem [mothereboard].)

Thank , Samgirl please let me know when you solve issue .

buile

 

Okay, I will. I'm supposed to get it back in about a week, so will post again then.

 

I got my computer back today from Toshiba warranty repair and it's fixed. All I know is that the repair slip that came back with it said "unit is to have Vista home premium, customer installed XP Pro, there are no supported keyboard drivers for XP Pro from Toshiba for XP Pro."

So I guess that means that something went wrong with the keyboard because XP Pro was installed on it? And re-installing Windows Vista is supposed to fix it?? It was working before just fine so I don't understand what that would have to do with it. I'm not real happy because they wiped out all the programs and everything I had on it (WordPerfect that was installed by the guy I bought it from) and so now that is gone. That's why I bought the computer is because it had XP Pro and WordPerfect on it! Oh, well.

 

That was a lame diagnosis on their part... I have never heard of a keyboard not functioning because of an XP downgrade...

Maybe you'll get used to Vista though? Many people really like it. Also if you like WordPerfect you might like Open Office. It is free, so it's worth trying.

Open Office:
http://www.openoffice.org/

 

Yeah, it sounded pretty weird to me too -- all I know is that the keyboard is working now. I don't really mind the Vista, I'm sure I can get used to that. But was not happy about their taking off my WordPerfect -- I've used that for years, all my documents are in WP, and it's the same program our office uses. I wonder why they couldn't reload it? Plus they wiped out all my photos (at least I had copies of them). But thanks for the advice about Open Office. I will give it a try. Thanks again, Greg!!

 

Don't spill beer on your keyboard!