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Help! My Shift key is stuck!

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I would start by trying another keyboard.

Posted by: Leo at September 11, 2005 9:21 AM

ok i do feel a little stupid now.. i found out the problem was that i had skype binded to mute when i pressed m and i guess when u have a key binded with skype it makes it so u cant type that letter at all... :P

Posted by: IZZO at September 17, 2005 2:47 PM

Thanks for posting that! That's actually a very good thing for people having similar problems to be aware of ... several programs allow you to configure system-wide hotkeys that can then interfere with normal usage of that same key.

Posted by: Leo at September 17, 2005 2:53 PM

Okay, I found this searching for MY problem. I have a Sony laptop (mistake #1). The "m" key seems to be stuck...when I boot up, I have to hit space-m-space-m-space-m over and over to get rid of a black screen w/ blinking cursor and a loud beeping noise. Then, when the machine boots up, the first time I try and click on a desktop Icon w/ the mouse, all the icons start blinking rapidly followed by the same loud beeping noise (w/ the volume up, of course). I have to then click back to the desktop to make that stop. Then I can't type an "m" at all. It just won't work. The "m" key, either lower or upper case, is completely inoperable. NO ONE has been able to tell me what to do to fix it. Help! (And don't say "get another keyboard"...that's just a workaround and I want my problem fixed.)

Posted by: chris hargrove at October 4, 2005 12:08 PM

Well, it does sound like a hardware so getting a new keyboard is an appropriate response. In a laptop that's a pain, I know, but you may not have another option.

You could try *carefully* popping off the m key from the keyboard and seeing if there's something stuck in there that's keeping it from workinf properly. It should then pop back on. Naturally, this could cause more harm than good if you're not sure about it, so only do this if you are. If you have a repair technician available to look at the machine, that might be a safer alternative.

Good luck!

Posted by: Leo at October 4, 2005 4:50 PM

Well, by "get another keyboard", I meant an EXTERNAL keyboard, which is what I've done as a workaround. Thanks for the advice.

Posted by: chris hargrove at October 5, 2005 11:57 AM

i was wonderin if you can help me, the at key on my keyboard will not work ,the key im talking about is the one that you use for email adress e.g. bobthornton(AT)hotmail.com, the actual key is working when i dont hold the tab key down and the tab is ok but i have to hold down the tab to use the AT key and when i do nothing happens.this means that i cant enter my email adress anywhere except when it is allready in the adress history box

Posted by: jason at October 29, 2005 1:51 PM

i have windows xp and please advise my shift key is not working rest all are working fine i tried uncheking sticky keys and all other stuff..

Posted by: rajeev at November 1, 2005 9:11 PM

Is is both, or just one? I would try borrowing another keyboard. It sounds like the keyboard itself, perhaps.

Posted by: Leo at November 1, 2005 9:26 PM

Related weirdness:

Without explanation, my XP system went into full "sticky keys" mode just last night; and turning them all off through Control Panel/Accessibility options has no effect. Swapping keyboards has no effect.

Many of the letter keys shortcut to their respective Windows system screens, as mentioned above and described on this page:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Windows-XP-Keyboard-Shortcuts.html

I did not turn this on and cannot seem to turn it off.

Makes it real interesting when you try to type in your Windows user login, or anything in the URL address field in IE! Had to log this question from another computer, even!

Is there any other place in XP this stupid feature can be accidentally/intentionally turned on, and, hence, turned off?

Thanks!

Posted by: Bo at November 14, 2005 8:47 AM
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