help! the key for the letter that comes *etween a and c wont work!

[browntrout]

I dropped a can of coke on the keyoard earlier today and whilst everything else seems to work ok, the key for the second letter of the alphaet wont work. I have taken off the plastic cover and it all seems dry *ut it wont work at all. Is there anything I can do?

thanks in advance (I'm heading off to *ed now so will check in the morning for any replies!)

if you're using word, you can use the insert/symbol option and then copy and paste it but that will only work each time you log on as the clipboard will be erased each time

Is there anything stuck underneath either the B cover when you take it off or on top of the thingy underneath the cover. Maybe try giving it a good clean with a toothbrush or a wipe with a babywipe. I guess it could be sticky residue causing a problem?

Bit of a PITA, but if you do Num Lock, then press ALT 98, you get the lovely letter b

Or uaAndump if it doesn't work for her ;)

that didn't work - what I meant was something that looked like
?u??aAnd?ump

ah now I know I'm a total Luddite here ut am on a lap top and there is a num lock ut is a secondary function on the scroll key and I dont know how to change to the other function. Sorry to *e so useless. Am very grateful for all the help though

there should be a button (possibly in blue?) with the letters Fn on it - press that and then press the num lock button. Then the numbers for 98 are written in small on the keypad...

thanks so much. At work now but will try when I get home. I love MN sometimes - so much knowledge!

I was given a laptop to sort out which had had a glass of wine spilled into it. Replacement keyboard unit (with 17! screws to hold it in) would have made a hole in 80 quid and time taken to get bad kbd out would have cost quite a bit (if I had been charging).

Friend (of friend) was more concerned with photos (thousands) of family and music pieces, and decided didn't want to spend 150 quid on parts (battery dead too). I just plugged in a USB keyboard and can move laptop to back of the desk (hate silly little mice anyway, so a USB optical mouse was added). Unless you want to spend a lot, can probably get mouse for a fiver (or less, on Ebay) and a USB keyboard for same.

Meant to add - of course only if you don't mind a separate keyboard. There are some narrow (width wise) keyboards, if size is important, but I much prefer having numeric pad separate and the separate cursors, home/ end/ del/ insert cluster.

A tiny number of functions still need the laptop 'Fn' key to be used - eg turning wi-fi off/on, screen brightness, switching to another (external) monitor, but after the wine, only a few keys (like the numbers row) still work, the rest show garbage and one cannot login without a separate keyboard, and it was a cheap option compared with trying to get a replacement, and when replacing it, have a chance of further damage (like throwing through window in frustration!)

just an update - couldnt get the Alt 98 thing to work and, for the moment have shelved the separate keyboard. Instead I just cut and paste the letter b which is time consuming to say the least but has the advantage of requiring me to be a bit more creative with my vocabulary! thanks to all anyway.

If you're working on a longish piece in word it might be quicker to just type another character like # instead of b each time & then do a find & replace (you'd have to c&p the b to put into the replace box, of course.)

That's what DD had to do when a picture fell off her wall at uni onto her laptop keyboard & broke the alt & x keys - for most things she could do without those two, but she happened to be writing an essay on the psychology of sex....

The laptop is currently having a new keyboard put in rather expensively at John Lewis; I'm just hoping it comes back in time for the new term.