Re: IIE Keyboard Repeating

[fishern3485@cobra.uni.edu]

> My son's IIE started to act up this past weekend. What ever key pressed is
> repeated until the buffer is full. When you press another key, it then starts
> repeating.
> 
> Any ideas what's wrong?

I had a short bout with this kind of problem.  For no apparent reason,
(no spills or food or other nasties) my keyboard started repeating
or double or triple striking certain keys.  I finally had to go clean
out some of the keys.

When one key on the keyboard gets stuck down, it gets the auto-repeat
going.  The keyboard decoder will keep auto-repeat up as long as ANY
key is held down for so long, but will only echo the LAST KEY PRESSED.
For instance, hold down your "D" key.  Wait for it to repeat.  Keep
holding it and press and release the "T" key.  Now as long as you hold
"D" down, "T" will repeat.

Looking at a later post you tell us that the return key is what repeats
before any key is pressed, so this is the one I would suspect of being
stuck.  VERY carefully pry the key off the keyboard.  Pulling straight
up is the only way to do it without breaking the post off. (don't pry
from one side only, use TWO screwdrivers or whatever)

Spray a very small spritz of WD-40 right down the post into the switch
below.  Work it a few times and replace the cap.  Worked good on my
return key, D key, and S key. (battling three stuck keys at once is no
fun)


If however, the keys being repeated are not the ones you are pressing,
you may have a zapped keyboard, (unlikely) or a zapped KBD chip. (quite
likely)  Try swapping keyboards wth someone else.  I believe they unplug
on the IIE. (they do on the //c anyway)  The KBD chip may also be in a
socket, but watch it, my //c's KBD chip is static sensitive, so don't
touch the pins, just the chip body.  Swap it out and see if that fixes
things.

-- 
Nathan Fisher
  FISHERN3485@COBRA.UNI.EDU