Y and Y keys interchanged

What would make the Z and Y kezs, that is, keys, exchange results when zou, umm, you press them_, umm, ?

underscore and question mark also

/me looks at the thread title and wonders how you can tell they got swapped..

I tried to switch my keypresses around when typing the title, but failed. There's a connection there with the inevitability of making typos, spelling, and or grammatical errors when writing a post containing a correction of or comment on problems with someone else's writing.

It should have said Y and Z.

I just rebooted it. Now I'll never know what the problem was.

Of course, if you had two Y keys, I guess that would be a problem in and of itself.

The ink has vanished from my E, A, S, D, F, C, V, N, M, and L keys, and most all of the K ink is gone too. This does not help the situation any. I'm really glad there are tiny bumps on the F and J keys, although I think those may be worn down a bit.

Just how ancient is that keyboard?

Anything close to that, and I use the disc I got with my keyboard to reinstall it.

I also hold no sentimental value to a worn out keyboard and would replace it.

When my computer starts acting up in any way, I always rule out malware/virus problems first by going through this online procedure:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Now that is bad........really, REALLY BAD!!!

I've gotten into the habit of ten dollar keyboards and inexpensive mice.

Now, that doesn't sound very good, does it - but in first life I am a bit of a disinfectant freak - the sort that carries around a pen rather than use anyone else's. I'll throw away a keyboard if it's a bit old.

Please note though, that largely due to these practises I haven't been sick from cold or flu since 2006 (the smoke inhalation from the Corona fire in Orange County last week was another matter entirely).

Keyboards recycle, and there are wireless mice for 5 USD at, ah, one of those holiday store sales we have going on in the USA right now.

Of course, if you want to break your dependence on the little painted on letters, there is always this:

http://www.daskeyboard.com/slideshow/index.php?directory=.&currentPic=1

Likewise, but for entirely different reasons.

- they don't have rows of special function keys to start the default email program and media player I never use anyway. Or, God forbid, the buttons that helpfully put my computer to sleep or outright shut it off when I accidentally brush against them while reaching for my headphones.

- they tend to have the large inverted L style ENTER key I favor.

- likewise the inverted T formation of arrow keys, not that damnable cross arrangement that gets me killed so quickly in FPS action games.

- they can be taken apart and keys washed in the sink, or in extreme cases the dishwasher.

- I feel nary a pang of guilt when I pry the Windows keys from them with a screwdriver.

- shopping for a new keyboard from time to time is kind of fun, and keeps me away from the aisle with the $600 video cards.

Oh, I have several keyboards to pick from.

Some Reveal brand keyboards with Alps mechanical keyswitches, two of those I think. One of them has the ancient fat kind of plug, the fat AT one.

I have an IBM Model M keyboard, which is also a bit ancient for actual use. SL in particular doesn't seem to like the ancient keyboards that require converters.

The old Reveal keyboard I used at work has to have been the perfect keyboard for me, but since I have tried some other models with the same kind of keys and found them not nearly so wonderful, I conclude that it was not simply the Alps keyswitches it had in it, but that particular unique one just happened to get them all perfect.

I hate mooshy keys, which means I hate most keyboards.

This Gateway I'm using now with the worn off lettering is OK for a standard boring keyboard.

I have a gamer's keyboard, a Saitek with a programmable keypad. It sucks. Not worth a penny. The programmable keypad plays back slower than a person would type using their feet. The letters started wearing off that almost instantly. The D on the Saitek is gone. It has only been used at most 20 hours.

I just saw the "Das Keyboard Ultimate" now just before seeing Desmond's post. That keyboard has mechanical keys too, but it's too expensive. That company makes models with the letters on them. I think that this company is using the same technology used to make the IBM Model M - I think they licensed the design from IBM, since IBM stopped making them and people have been crying for them for decades. A modern, USB keyboard with Model M keys might be pretty tempting for those with the dough.

I just saw an Acer mechanical keyswitch for 12 bucks used. That's tempting.

I've had the Microsoft Chinese IME installed and activated to make the occasional Chinese character but that finally got activated one time too many so it's gone now.

There's a company called Strongman ( http://64.176.254.221/index_products.htm ) that supposedly makes mechanical switch keyboards but I can't find them for sale anywhere. They did offer to make a batch if I wanted to order a thousand or so.

And there's always that keyboard with the programmable displays on every key, did that ever actually come out?

What I really need to get for the computers is more memory and better video cards. Picking that out bugs me, trying to make sure I would be getting the right kind at a good price. It's been easy enough to be sure of getting the right kind at Gateway prices, which have been high, but even that may not be possible since Gateway is not really Gateway anymore. The Gateway is probably worth upgrading, but the Compaq is AGP, and thus might not be worth spending any money at all on. It serves to browse the web as it is.

I can think of four possible causes, off the top of my head. I'll list them in order of likelihood:

1. Your keyboard might be on the fritz. Try plugging in a different one. Chances are the problem will go away. If you don't have a spare on hand, grab a cheapo from Office Max or Walmart for $10. Whether it solves this particular problem or not, it's always good to have a spare anyway. If it works, you can then consider investing in a better one to use as your main keyboard, and keep the cheapo in the closet for next time you have any problems. Or just keep using it if you like it.


2. It's possible your key mapping is messed up. It can happen if your registry is corrupted. There are a few things you can try to fix it.

First, try rolling back your machine via System Restore to a date before the problem started. Often, that's the simplest way to cure what ails your OS.

Also, it would probably be a good idea to run a registry repair tool. You can find a ton of them at download.com and elsewhere. Just search for "registry repair", and pick one with good reviews.

If your keyboard came with any special software, uninstall it, reboot, and re-install. You shouldn't need any special drivers for basic keys, but if you've got a driver in there for any advanced keys on your keyboard, and that driver has somehow become corrupted, it could cause all kinds of weird effects.

If none of the above works, you can manually remap your keys any way you want, by editing the registry. An easy way to do that is to to use a utility called SharpKeys to make the necessary edits for you. Check it out at http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/ . Alternatively, you can edit the registry by hand, but I would not recommend it. It's very dangerous. A few errant keystrokes in the Regedit, and you can permanently cripple your machine. Don't try it unless you're absolutely certain you know what you're doing. It's much safer to use goal-specific hacks like SharpKeys when you want to change the registry than to mess with it by hand.


3. You could have a virus. When was the last time you updated your antivirus software, and when was the last time you did a full system scan?


4. Someone could be screwing with you. I once had a kid working for me who prided himself on his hacking skills. An acquaintance once made the mistake of betting this kid that he couldn't break into HIS machine. The acquaintance's system was "secure", after all. The kid accepted the bet, waited a few weeks for the guy to let his mental guard down, and then invited him to play an online game with him. That was all he needed. He got past the guy's firewall in about 2 seconds flat, and promptly switched his keyboard to Bulgarian, which is almost impossible to undo if you don't know that layout. After the kid finished telling me this story, he said, "I could have gone in and deleted all his files as well, but that would have been going too far. He got the point."

If a like-minded hacker to that kid somehow got into your system, he could have remapped your Z and Y keys to be the same. It's very unlikely that someone would do that, but it's certainly not impossible.


If none of these things turn out to be the cause of the problem, then I'm stumped for now. In the mean time, I'd say the smart money is on number one.

Don't German, or possibly East European keyboards have the Y and Z reversed? Maybe you somehow changed your regional settings.

Too much alcohol.

Pep (Or not enough)

I think you are probably right, but I was just typing. What is the magic cursed keystroke one would press to do that ?

It's back to normal now, after rebooting. Just one of those things the world does to drive you nuts.

Like toggling the scroll wheel from "Scroll the web page up and down" to "Go back and forth in your browsing history" by mistake.

I wish.

Can't drink any more.

I run two keyboard settings that allow me to switch from either German or English.

It is right that the Y is the Z and the Z is the Y, also a number of other keys will also change.

I quite often have this problem in SL with the keyboard switching for example when checking the face of a prim with the Ctrl-Alt-Shift-T.
The reason for this is my keyboard shortcut to switch language is Ctrl-Shift and there's the pattern as to why mine changes. I did not click Alt in between.

So to change this on your task bar there should be a symbol with 'EN', right click it and goto settings, here you can see what languages are being used and the keyboard settings where you can add,remove and obviously change everything including shortcuts.

If it is not that then go with one of Chosen's options.

To follow up, you might not see the 'EN' on/by your task bar. If not right click the Task bar, select toolbars and select Language Bar.

Then you can open up the language settings.

It was Croatian. Something - probably me - added Croatian in to my keyboard language settings. Rather odd.

Virus-wise my virus definitions are updated daily, AVG free runs all the time, and Windows Defender also runs all the time.

I do not want anything to happen if I press alt control or shift control or alt shift or both alt keys. I may be holding them down while still holding the mouse. They need to be patient.

And the sticky keys thing. Aghh. That gets me at work.

I don't want to ever see the EN thing again.

I really got to get motivated, I'm going to grab a spare keyboard grind some notches into the F & J keys and then spray paint it black

Hey, this is Second Life, you're supposed to be wearing out the O, M, G keys

Keyboard prefs messup: switched to german keyboard layout:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTZ

Every time the topic of keyboards comes up, I have a brief pang of nostalgia for the Symbolics lisp machine.

A distant second would be the adapted Selectric keyboards used in the first generation IBM PCs, as others have mentioned.

I had a brief flirtation with cordless keyboards and mice. The romance faded, though: when the batteries weakened, it would exercise my command of the vernacular in an unappealing way. (On the road, though, I still use a cordless for the notebook, only because it packs neater than the corded one.)

But now I just use disposable keyboards and mice. But apparently I never dispose of them: I'm typing on a Compaq keyboard from a long-since deceased Pentium 2.

Which reveals something about my KVM: it's still based on PS2 connectors. And, sadly, VGA. Although it handles analog 1920x1280 very nicely, I'd really like to get a true digital DVI (and USB) switch someday--even if it means springing for a new disposable keyboard and mouse.

Cheap keyboards, like mine, don't need much use for the paint to disappear. My I and O keys have to be typed from memory now and others are on the way. The keyboard isn't all that many months old.

I SL on a lappy - my Y left the building months ago. I have spare keyboards coming out of m ears- to go with the six or so comps that still have ghostly presences in the house yet only three REALLY work. When I first got m very FIRST comp... it had been a reduced sale because over shipment beats me what sale at the port. The key board had the neat n with the tilde, the accent thingie it was cool. Sadly at some pint I lost that config and now have a normal english speaking keyboard. I miss my N with tilde and my accent on e I use character map when i need them but i did like having them on the kb.
My lappy lost the y entirely- my friends deal with my odd writing and typonese

Wireless mice are no good unless they come with a charger, because normal batteries run out much too quickly and rechargables need organising. But normal batteries in wireless keyboards last a long time, so they are ok.