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Tech question about HP keyboard

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **3/10/16 3:52 pm**

Off topic, I know, but I hate slogging through the whole internet to try to find something some of you might already know. Thanks in advance.

I am using a computer (that is not mine). It is a hp Pavilion TouchSmart 15 Notebook. It has been doing some strange and unwelcome things.
When I type a capital 'H,' I get a 'paste' keyboard shortcut. Bizarre.
When I hit 'shift + quotation mark,' I get a 'paste' keyboard shortcut.
Any ideas on what's wrong? I must have hit a key sequence that triggered this.
I have had some problems with the keyboard not working at all. If I remove the battery, then replace it, that usually makes the keyboard work again, but it doesn't change the strange keyboard shortcuts.

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 15570 **3/10/16 3:56 pm**

Try goin to the HP website and update the machine. Sometimes lacking certain updates can cause strange stuff to happen.

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **3/10/16 4:44 pm**

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **3/10/16 7:37 pm**

I think that may have been the computer I had in Hawaii. Just a warning. Don't drop that thing. My 4-year-old somehow got tangled up in the cable and knocked it over and shattered the screen.

Also, the hard drive is hard to get out of that thing. At 1 AM, the night before my flight, I'd finally gotten a hold of a decent microscrewdriver to get the drive out. I had to take the whole bottom off and realized I'd have had to take the keyboard somehow to get to the drive, so I just pride the thing apart with a screwdriver and left that laptop along with another HP in the trashcan.

Lower end HPs aren't that strong if you drop them. They are nothing like an IPad in that regard. I just bought one yesterday, though, but got the $69 Geek squad insurance against dropping it. They are usually fast enough for what I want to do, so they are okay.

I never had that problem with the H keys. That's really weird. I did have the problem with that last HP that if I put it to sleep by pushing the power button or closing it, whatever the method was that worked, that it wouldn't respond to left click or keyboard to type in the password to get back into windows. I'd have to reboot. That was really annoying.
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Acts-pert Poster Posts: 15570 **3/10/16 8:40 pm**

All of my PC's are Dell and I aint never had a minutes trouble out of em.

Ma last three laptops has been HP, anb I aint never had no real trouble out of em. I've had my current one about 1 1/2 years, its a HP Envy TouchSmart (touchscreen) 17". Its got a i7 processor, 8 Gig a RAM, an I aint never had a minutes trouble out of it. All three a ma HP laptops have been a little higher end (by that I mean not the cheapest they had). The retail price when I bought the one I got now was $1300, but I got it on sale at Best Buy for $950. About 9 months or so ago I bought a Solid State Drive (cost of unit an installation at local computer shop was $300) and changed the Hard Drive to a SSD, which reboots in a fraction a the time the hard drive did. I do remember the technician tellin me when I had the SSD installed that my unit was not the typical lower end unit, he even said he didn't like to work on a lot of the HP units. I guess the higher end ones are made a little more sturdy or heavy duty, I don't know, but I've never had a minutes problem with mine. Here she is:

How ole is your unit Miss Bonnie? If its fairly new, hey, I'd take it back an tell em you need some technical help with it.

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **3/10/16 9:26 pm**

That's a nice looking laptop, Ole Timer. (And I've really gotten quite fond of the touch screen.)
No, this computer is not new. If I had to use it for something serious like school or work, I would probably have to be a little more diligent about getting it fixed.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6385 **3/10/16 10:48 pm**

It almost sound like someone has re-programmed his keyboard shortcuts. I think HP has a built in app that will return them to factory defaults.

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **3/10/16 11:06 pm**

Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that someone might have been me somehow inadvertently doing that. Hopefully, I'll figure out how to restore the defaults.

Acts-celerater Posts: 755 **3/11/16 9:08 am**

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **3/11/16 10:37 am**

This is not that kind of issue. In my searching on the internet, I did come across mentions of that problem, but that is not what is happening in my case. My primary language is still US English (except when I converse with Ole Timer, lol).
Thanks for brainstorming with me, though.

Acts-celerater Posts: 755 **3/11/16 10:45 am**

Bonnie, I saw what you said it was doing and it appears that somehow the key assignments got changed. I just cannot imagine how that could happen without doing it intentionally.

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **3/11/16 11:38 am**

Acts-celerater Posts: 755 **3/11/16 2:24 pm**

I am not sure this would prove anything for sure but if you have a desktop computer handy try plugging the keyboard from it into the USB port on the laptop. Then see if that keyboard acts the same way.

It could be a failure of the keyboard in the laptop. As a stuck FN key or such. Seems to me it could even be a loose contact in the connector that joins the keyboard to the motherboard.

Just probing. I have one (also an HP) that I was running Linux on and it will not stay on more than a few minutes before the whole thing freezes. I think I am going to try a bios update to see if that fixes it. I got it free. The John Deere dealer where my son-in-law works was going to throw it out since it had been rolled over by a tractor in a plowed field. It was a bit warped but I replaced the broken LCD screen and it worked fine for a couple of years.

I mention this because I believe basic keyboard operation is a bios function and might take a bios update to fix. But some functions also seem to be keyed to the OS like the Windows key. A bios update can be tedious and dangerous to the life of the computer if done wrong.

Anyway, hope you solve the aggravating problem soon.