Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now'
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I have the most bizarre of problems right now.
I have a keyboard that sometimes registers a keypress as two or even three keypresses, sometimes when the stars align just right.
I fuck up and topple over a bowl of extremely thick bean soup over my beloved cherry keyboards numpad. Fuck. But hey it still works perfectly well. Part of why I love it so much is that I am very clumsy and I have spilled so much stuff over it be you can always just remove the keys, wipe everything clean and all is well. Haha, you say, so you just spilled something over your keyboard and borked it, there is nothing bizarre about that. But thats not all.Skip to next day. I wake up the PC from hibernation. First I don't notice anything, but then I realize that some of the keys don't work and others also produce the character next to them when pushed, others just random characters neither in the same row nor on the same half of the keyboard. Fuck, gotta get a new one, but I'll just go buy a cheap 10β¬ one, I need one to take along anyways and I wont have to switch my keyboard to the Raspberry Pi anymore. It works fine, I go and order a new good one online. One day passes, nothing happens.
2 hours ago. I want to go to some website and press shift + 7, but instead of / I see &/. Da fuck? all keys from the number row also produce the key to the left of them, except for 2 which also activates some useless "help" hotkey that opens windows help dialog evertime it is pressed.
Oh no, I think, my motherboard is five years old, maybe finally its day has come? I know this kind of behaviour can happen when the connectors on the mother board arch over because something is not propperly connected, something is greasy or because the mobo is dying of old age. Better check that it is not a driver fault in windows or something.
Boot into Linux on other hdd. Guess I can test it right here by just pressing a number button and see if more than one black dot shows up. Press 1. Linux dies. Completely freezes. I have to reboot. better not do that again. Enter password, open firefox enter 1, it produces the "to the power of 1" sign, the small raised one. Apparently on Linux entering ^1 at exactly the same time does not produce ^1 like on windows but that weird power of one character, and that crashes Linux WHY EVER THE FUCK IT WOULD DO THAT. So it is completely borked across operating systems, must be a hardware failure. But is it the mobo or the keyboard? Remeber this thing is brand new, I just bought it literally yesterday. Edit: Oh, would you look at that, now the mouse scroll wheel does not seem to react properly and the graphics driver seems to be bugging out, everything is flickering like cracy, must be the mother board then. (forgot this part initially, maybe now you understand why I just didn't go with a broken keyboard initially)
Plug it into Laptop. Behavior persists. So it must be the Keyboard that is then broken, right? (Edit: and the problems in Linux disapeared after one more reboot into windows, so ehhh?) Guess I will have to make due untill the new one arrives. Plug it back into PC. Everything is back to normal again. What?????? Plug back into Laptop. Everthing still normal. Ooookaaaayyy???? Back into PC. PC wont recognize it. Does weird sounds like I am rapidly plugging and unplugging. Installs as unknown device. Unplug replug. Completely ignores it. I do further tests, It still works fine on the Laptop like nothing is wrong. Basically everything is exactly the same as back when my old motherboard died and the USB part started dying first.
Keyboard works perfectly again on PC. Basically, now it changes from borked to non-borked in completely random intervals, but the strange thing is that it maintains it state even when I unplug it and plug it into my Laptop, except there it never seems to change state.
So cast your vote, is it:
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The keyboard, I just happen to randomly not have state changes when it's in the laptop and need a bigger sample size
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The motherboard, and whatever it is doing shotcuts something on the keyboards chip or something
Unfortunately, the old keyboard that seemed borked seems to be completely dead, no matter which machine I try it with. While writing this post it changed from borked to non-borked several times, and as if to troll me whenever I wanted to type only one character it wrote two and when I wanted to write down an example I had to type them out seperately; the universe hates me.
This thead is mainly here to amuse you, but if someone has some tips on how to further identify the culprit, please do tell. Unforunately my motherboard manufacturer does not provide tools to diagnose problems and apparently vendor supplied software is basically the only way to really test a specific motherboard from what I know.
Also, please post your most bizarre computer problems, I am always fascinated with the arcanely weird shit that happens to some people.
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Also, please post your most bizarre computer problems, I am always fascinated with the arcanely weird shit that happens to some people.
I have no idea about your keyboard problems, but my weirdest hardware moment came a week or two ago when my school-provided macbook pro (sigh...) had an ant colony living inside of it. I kept squishing little ants crawling out of the fan vents, but they kept coming.
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Keyboards can operate in different driver modes, which mode it's in is based on OS and BIOS versions, connector (PS/2 vs USB), and the modes control things like N-key rollover and special buttons. So maybe the keyboard is physically damaged and certain driver modes are more screwed up than others?
Do you have other keyboards to try?
Also, inb4 wharbgarbl about trying to help in a Side Bar thread.
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@mott555 said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Keyboards can operate in different driver modes, which mode it's in is based on OS and BIOS versions, connector (PS/2 vs USB), and the modes control things like N-key rollover and special buttons. So maybe the keyboard is physically damaged and certain driver modes are more screwed up than others?
That could be it, but why would it switch modes while operation and why would mode selection persist when unplugging it and plugging it into another PC. Seems strange but possible. Oh and now the upper row of keys also has similar problems, it just gets worse and worse, but only ever second keypress whaaaaaaaaaattttttt tttthhhhheeee ffffuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk.
@mott555 said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Do you have other keyboards to try?
Unforunatley not.
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
That could be it, but why would it switch modes while operation and why would mode selection persist when unplugging it and plugging it into another PC.
News Flash: Broken hardware can act broken.
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@mott555 said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
That could be it, but why would it switch modes while operation and why would mode selection persist when unplugging it and plugging it into another PC.
News Flash: Broken hardware can act broken.
touchΓ©
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I'll just go buy a cheap 10β¬ one
That's my vote for the culprit. I think you're suffering from the Take A Bomb On The Airplane fallacy.
Laurie Anderson - United States: Live (Part One) – [46:36..47:05] 1:12:08
— noktoartificeYou have a known keyboard fault, so you buy a replacement keyboard. But the keyboard fault you already have is not, in fact, protective against the replacement keyboard also being faulty.
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You need a mechanical keyboard. These are apparently magical and fix all keyboard problems ever. Even the problems you didn't realise you had.
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@loopback0 said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Even the problems you didn't realise you had.
Like, they will edit your messages after posting?
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@Luhmann said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Like, they will edit your messages after posting?
No you need membrane keyboards for that.
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@flabdablet Yeah I know, but it is all so fucking strange, and the keyboard only acts up when connected to this specific PC. I could still not observe any faults while the keyboard was in un-borked mode and connected to the laptop. I guess I test a bit more with the laptop and I will definiately see what the culprit is when the new proper keyboard arrives.
Also
This video is not available
Oh and what I completely forgot to mention was that my USB mouse and my graphics card also seemed to act very strange while booted into Linux, even though it hasn't been updated recently and is a debian stable that has run smoothely for month. I'll edit that into the OP. Thats mostly why I still think it might be a mobo fault, even though those problems don't appear while in windows.
These are all just so many strange coincidences that I just thought "well the explanation with the fewest assumptions made is that the 4 or 5 years old mobo is failing"
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
This video is not available
Try the replacement.
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@loopback0 So if I get one will it also fix its own annoying clickering, the usually very high profile keys and the irritatingly long distance you have to press them down?
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@Benjamin-Hall said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
when my school-provided macbook pro (sigh...) had an ant colony living inside of it.
That's convenient
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@loopback0 So if I get one will it also fix its own annoying clickering, the usually very high profile keys and the irritatingly long distance you have to press them down?
Mechanical keyboards fix everything ever.
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@loopback0 I am convinced, I will
sell my soulbuy one right away
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
I will sell my soul
Mechanical keyboards aren't that expensive. They only cost an arm and a leg.
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@mott555 said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Also, inb4 wharbgarbl about trying to help in a Side Bar thread.
I thought the only guy who screamed his head off about that left this place.
@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Also, please post your most bizarre computer problems, I am always fascinated with the arcanely weird shit that happens to some people.
Not a computer problem, per-se, but definitely a bizarre hardware problem from my in-laws. At some point their cable TV started crapping out randomly, where the picture would get digitally distorted (kinda looking like it's pixelated, audio cutting out and back in, etc.). Usually this indicates a weak signal or maybe a bad cable box. The cable company couldn't find anything wrong, and it was hard to reproduce.
Then they finally found a correlation: It only happened when they had their recently installed new dishwasher on in the kitchen about 20 feet away from the TV and cable box. The dishwasher wasn't some fancy wifi-enabled appliance, and they confirmed it was on a separate circuit from the cable box, and there wasn't any signal amplifier or anything on the circuit either.
This started several months ago and to this day they never really figured out how a dumb appliance on a separate circuit could cause interference on a coax connection. At first I was skeptical of their situation, but after they demonstrated it to me, I was convinced.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Also, please post your most bizarre computer problems, I am always fascinated with the arcanely weird shit that happens to some people.
I have no idea about your keyboard problems, but my weirdest hardware moment came a week or two ago when my school-provided macbook pro (sigh...) had an ant colony living inside of it. I kept squishing little ants crawling out of the fan vents, but they kept coming.
What? You're destroying school property! Return that biology material at once!
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@Quwertzuiopp also check the power supply for magic smoke / smell and check if no fans have failed or have come loose.
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@The_Quiet_One I have an HDMI cable (attached to an XBox) that feeds the TV a bright splash of random colored pixels sometimes when I get up from the couch. Occasionally it's bad enough to cause the TV to just go black (and silent) for a couple of seconds before it picks the signal back up again.
I tried fiddling with the HDMI cable to see if that fixed it, and the XBox promptly went red ring of death on me. Rebooting it fixed it, though, and I haven't messed with it much since that.
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@anotherusername Interesting. My new 4K TV/PC monitor gets all kinds of flashing green pixels, which I was able to confirm was not the TV's fault. Maybe it's my HDMI cable and not a failing GPU like I assumed.
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@The_Quiet_One When I helped my sister move in, we discovered that her digital tv signal would show some interference if you stand in front of her bed. The only problem is that she has cable tv. You could fiddle around with the cable from the tv to the socket and nothing would change or happen. The spot was 5 meters away from the socket. We never figured out what it was, she gets her internet through the tv cable connection and when a technician upgraded the socket for that the problem went away.
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@anotherusername Should have gone with that oxygen-free gold-plated cable after all...
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@mott555 said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@anotherusername Interesting. My new 4K TV/PC monitor gets all kinds of flashing green pixels, which I was able to confirm was not the TV's fault. Maybe it's my HDMI cable and not a failing GPU like I assumed.
I get this on one of my 2 identical 1080p monitors, along with periodic (and usually repetitive when it happens) resyncs where it'll blank out and lose the signal before reestablishing it and displaying again, and I just assume it's because that monitor happens to be using whatever cheapass HDMI cable I got with an Xbox 360 a long time ago since it was the only one that'd reach that far. I might rejigger where the monitors are in relation to the tower when I move my computer desk soon so I can use one of my shorter ones...
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@anotherusername said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
the XBox promptly went red ring of death on me
How many lights? 3 is RROD, 4 signifies a disconnected HDMI cable
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@Jaloopa I don't recall, but they stayed red after I plugged the cable back in, and it didn't work until I rebooted it.
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sounds like the motherboard isn't providing sufficient power. Is it USB? You can get a checker for that.
Also as mentioned above. I have a keyboard that works just fine in DOS mode, but as soon as a driver is loaded....
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@antiquarian said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
I will sell my soul
Mechanical keyboards aren't that expensive. They only cost an arm and a leg.
Do they take two legs? I need the arms for the keyboard...
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@WernerCD Won't the keyboard magically let you write anyways? I don't think you fully understand the full magnitude of the magic
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@Quwertzuiopp I didn't realize it was an Apple Keyboard we were talking about... at which point, an arm and a leg is a steal.
Apple products normally cost an arm, leg and a major organ to be sold on the black market...
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
well the explanation with the fewest assumptions made is that the 4 or 5 years old mobo is failing
Could also be the 5V or backup 5V rail in the power supply.
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@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
the explanation with the fewest assumptions made is that the 4 or 5 years old mobo is failing
Another possibility: if the USB port experiencing these problems is on the PC's front panel and the PC was built by dickheads, you might find a long and shitty bit of ribbon cable between the front panel USB ports and the USB pins on the mobo instead of proper shielded USB cable. I've seen that cause weird issues before.
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@Quwertzuiopp It's the keyboard. You've got some sort of conductive goo in there and it's making the keyboard controller chip misbehave. You might be able to strip the whole thing down completely and clean it off with clean water (the flux gets rinsed off during manufacture).
With any sort of liquid ingress, all bets are off.
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@gordonjcp As I understand it, the mystery issue is occurring with the cheapo replacement keyboard, not the one with soup in it.
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@WernerCD said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
Do they take two legs? I need the arms for the keyboard...
Any two limbs would be acceptable.
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@flabdablet said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@Quwertzuiopp said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
the explanation with the fewest assumptions made is that the 4 or 5 years old mobo is failing
Another possibility: if the USB port experiencing these problems is on the PC's front panel and the PC was built by dickheads, you might find a long and shitty bit of ribbon cable between the front panel USB ports and the USB pins on the mobo instead of proper shielded USB cable. I've seen that cause weird issues before.
Build it myself. I am allways very paranoid about doing everything exactly the right way with computers, I got the biggest best heatsink that could fit in the case, the best cables, a very reliable PSU with lots of watts to spare even after everything is installed... Basically I just made sure to only get the very best I could when I built this machine because I knew back then that hardware would not advance much for at least two and a half years, so I could very well invest in all the good shit because I wouldn't have to upgrade it one and a half years later this time.
And lucky for me, Intel, AMD and Nvidia performed even worse than I thought, fuck all reason to upgrade either my overclocked CPU or my graphics card for all this time. Only now do I start to see real perfomance advantages I could get by upgrading after more than 4 years. But even then, I can still play all new games I want to play on at least high or very high and none of the coding I do at home would really profit from more power. I think the reason I might just have to upgrade soon is because some of the silicon is going to start to give up after all these years of daily heavy use
I still have no second keyboard to try out, but I did check everything in the case and the PSU and the cables to the USB panel look fine, just as the all the other cables. All fans are still turning perfectly well too. The only thing
@flabdablet said in Bizarre hardware failure or 'Is Quwertzuiopp losing his mind right now':
@gordonjcp As I understand it, the mystery issue is occurring with the cheapo replacement keyboard, not the one with soup in it.
correct, its the replacement that is acting up after only about three hours of lite use