Function keys stopped working (suddenly): broken, not working, kaput!

There I was happy working away and suddenly and  (function keys F5 and F8) in the application I was using suddenly stopped working. Now I've had sticky keys before, but in 10-15 years never more than one at a time. I use F8 and F5 lots, by the well known law if a key fails, it's likely to be one used lots. I tried a few applications: no joy with these keys in any of them. It looked like it was the keyboard.
  

Nipped next door and got a PS2 keyboard (round plug on the end as opposed to the new square plug that goes in the same place as every other plug). That keyboard simply did not work: PS2 keyboards need the computer to start up with the keyboard plugged in. Since the computer was doing a long running background task – I did not want to restart it at that instant. Went upstairs and got a USB (Square plug) keyboard. Still there was no joy although the keyboard worked for all other non function keys. I still sort of convinced that I needed a replacement keyboard so went via Staples that evening and picked up a spare – more about that later...)
  

Following morning: I restarted Windows. there were still no working function keys. Powered down, unplugged, left for 30 seconds, powered back up. Still no function keys! This was serious – I needed these keys! Without them this PC is next to useless for my purposes and I need this computer. Ok I have (at least) 3 others with all applications installed and all the files synced across the cloud (Sugar sync), but this one has both my 2560 by 1600 screens and complicated stuff is much easier when there is that much desktop real estate. (Yes I know at this point you have stopped feeling sorry for me because 30 stands for 30 inch.). Googled Function keys not working: 3 pages of rubbish about application settings.  Google is great but there are some things no matter what you enter, it goes off in a different direction.

It turns out that some keyboards have a function lock button (circled in green) and a little light (also circled in green) to tell you it's locked on. Of course when it is off and the function keys are doing other things to normal then it does not draw attention to itself.... 

This was true of this keyboard (not true of every other keyboard I tried). Probably for some historical reason the state of the function lock key is stored so it's kept when you unplug the computer or unplug the keyboard.

One small key press solved the problem Ahhhhhrrrrgggg....

Actually it was not such a bad day. I had one of those Staples discount vouchers and whist looking for a spare keyboard, spied one of those dinky little palm tops: Asus Eee PC 1001PX (Seashell). They are going for around £220 now. Feeling sure my 20% discount voucher would not apply to the more expensive items, I asked at the till. Apparently it was covered! Scanned in and came out at 20% off. Staples do offer very good value for money. I’ve not yet found anything significantly cheaper elsewhere or even on-line. At just over £180 Asus Eee PC 1001PX was a bargain.   

Not bad performance  so far: windows 7 starter edition and gesture recognition on the touch pad. 

There is only one major disadvantage as far as I can see...Having bought a carrier bag to protect this nice device, it looks awfully like I've adopted the pracise of carrying a Handbag or "Man bag" down the High street.

Choosing a Laptop

Choosing a Laptop

From time to time I’m asked by friends: what sort of (Windows) laptop do I recommend? They know I’ve been buying laptops for 20 years now. I have changed manufacturers for various reasons. From experience, all laptops seem to have some aspect (however small) which gave rise to a support query of some sort. It is probably best to go with a specific manufacturer as the actual machines change on a six monthly basis.

I used to be a great fan of Dell until I had trouble understanding their support line about 5 years ago. Curiously their sales line personnel always spoke clearly and the sales line was always high quality. The support line personnel were (from my view) highly accented, difficult to understand and the line quality was like I was talking to someone on Mars.

The range of computer manufacturers I’ve purchased from are: Gateway (many years ago), Dell, Toshiba, HP (Hewlett Packard) and Sony. Only one manufacturer (Sony) has driven me to blog negatively about the experience and only one Manufacturer (Sony) has started me down the road of legal action.

I tend to buy a new laptop every couple of years: such is the pace of development. They tend to alternate: medium specification, then high end. The HP and the most recent Toshiba were both medium end machines. They probably represent the best buys. I bought both of them from the John Lewis Partnership. The high end machines were top end processors (for their day) with top memory specs.

The Sony Vaio is the only machine where there was more than one catastrophic problem. One was hard drive failure and in my opinion the other is either bad design or poor manufacture.

The Sony Vaio and Dell both cost in the region of £1K5 at today’s prices. All machines irrespective of age are (apart from the Sony Vaio)  in good working order. The Sony Vaio is less than 6 month old the other machines are at least two years old. Indeed the HP is some five years old and still going strong.  

Let me be clear, I have had hard drives fail. If that was the only major problem with the Sony Vaio, then it was repaired under warrantee. My real issue is the fact that the power connector is failing. I take good care of my machines: they are part of my livelihood. Sony refuses to repair the Vaio laptop under warrantee even though the machine has in no way been misused or mishandled. They have offer to repair it for around £250 pounds which they describe (in my view insultingly) as a low price. You can get a new machine for close to that amount!

I have also to say that their support lines and pages were the most difficult to navigate I have ever encountered! I was abruptly terminated on both the web pages (with a server error message) and the phone line (which cut off to dialing tone). This happened at least four times for each of the services when I was trying to enter requested (15 digit) codes. I ended up calling their sales line to get a call back.

I also have an small issue with the robustness of the case. As standard use, I plug a mouse into the laptop and use the area in front of the keyboard as a mouse pad. The Sony Vaio case has deteriorated badly in three months of using the case to rest the mouse on. The other machines show no signs of wear after years: 4 or more times the use of the Sony. These machine were a half or a third of the cost of the Sony Vaio.  

So what do I currently recommend?   Go to John Lewis and choose a machine there. Choose Toshiba or HP. John Lewis will be competitive both competative on price and normally extend the warrantee to two years or more as part of the standard price (clearly this may change in the future).

Please don’t choose a Sony Vaio!

Ah well, back to writing the Agency software (on the Toshiba not on the Sony!)

Best regards
Ian