[chowdown]

I found a Dell QuietKey at a garage sale (yes, I AM cheap) to use with my company laptop while working at home (Compaq N610, XP).

Works fine EXCEPT that when I press the "4" key on the Numpad, I get \4 (sometimes 4\, sometimes but rarely just "4"). Also, when the Numpad "1" is pressed it also toggles CapsLock!

This keyboard needed a good vacuuming, but when I dismantled it it looked VERY clean inside. I saw no evidence of debris causing a short circuit.

What are the most likely causes? Can't tell if liquid was ever spilled on it, no signs of physical abuse.

Could the chip inside the keyboard be corrupted?

Obviously this is noncritical, but I sure am curious. Thanks for taking time to read this...

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Hi there

Ok, I'm having a bit of a wild stab at this one (also known as an educated guess!)....

I suspect the issue isn't strictly with the keyboard itself. To test this theory you could try connecting it to a desktop system instead of a laptop & see if it behaves normally then.
If it does, then I suggest the problem is being caused by the fact that this a laptop & as such, wasn't designed to have a seperate numeric keypad (some laptops do provide a numeric keypad by using a group of alpha/character keys + numlock - if your laptops built in keyboard has a small number '3' on the 'L' key, then it has this facility also).

Also, some keyboard controllers do not support seperate operation of an internal & external numlock function (i.e both numlocks on the two keyboards).

Try fiddling with the numlock key on the built-in keyboard & the one of the external keyboard e.g one on & one off, both on, both off etc and see if that makes any difference

[Samm]

Hi there

Ok, I'm having a bit of a wild stab at this one (also known as an educated guess!)....

I suspect the issue isn't strictly with the keyboard itself. To test this theory you could try connecting it to a desktop system instead of a laptop & see if it behaves normally then.
If it does, then I suggest the problem is being caused by the fact that this a laptop & as such, wasn't designed to have a seperate numeric keypad (some laptops do provide a numeric keypad by using a group of alpha/character keys + numlock - if your laptops built in keyboard has a small number '3' on the 'L' key, then it has this facility also).

Also, some keyboard controllers do not support seperate operation of an internal & external numlock function (i.e both numlocks on the two keyboards).

Try fiddling with the numlock key on the built-in keyboard & the one of the external keyboard e.g one on & one off, both on, both off etc and see if that makes any difference

[chowdown]

Thanks Samm for taking a shot at this...

I tried it on a separate desktop, and the "problem" moved to other keys! Num-4 and Num-1 were fine but t, y, [, and ] didn't work. It's junk as far as I'm concerned.

I appreciate your time.

[Samm]

Hmmmm, sounds like the keyboard may have some weird wiring fault in that case!