H
HopperJonusFang
Guest
Well here's a bittersweet story, on Sunday 24 October I decided to give my keyboard a clean. My white eMac keyboard had loads of crap underneath the keys causing some of them to jam. I've cleaned it many times before so I took out the keys, put them in a bowl of water, and got a brush onto the keyboard itself. After some thorough cleaning I carefully put all the keys back onto the board after leaving it for a while to stand.
I switch on the Mac and it starts typing 3333333 and 4444 in my login screen by itself, I just thought it was still wet so I stood it upside down for a few hours or so. I then tried again and no luck. The keys simply would not work.
I removed the keys again and put the hair dryer on it in a last attempt to dry it out and hopefully fix it. But still no joy.
I realised I'd completely goosed my eMac's keyboard Sad
Lesson learned - never use water on a keyboard or near one, no matter how petty the amount.
I decided to try and get a replacement today. It was a hard job, the Apple ones are too expensive and basic so I decided to opt for a different brand of USB keyboard. Next to impossible, in the local Dixons and branch of The Computer Shop near us nearly all the keyboards were PS/2 connections and the ones that weren't were expensive cordless USB ones.
Then I came across a nice £30 Chicony USB cordless keyboard/mouse set. I liked it. Sure, it was black and silver and clashed with my eMac's white, but it goes with my Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 printer so not all bad. The software it came equipped with was Windows, but I decided to pay the £30 and give it a try.
Low and behold it worked! And I must say using cordless hardware is so much nicer, and this keyboard is much nicer to use than the one that came as standard with my Mac. The mouse is nice too, having 2 buttons and a scroll wheel is like driving a Mercedes compared to the 1 button mouse I was used to.
The only gripes I have with it, which are fairly minor, is the eject function. At first I crapped myself thinking I can't eject discs but right click and eject works nicely when there is a disk in the drive, and iTunes can eject the drive for you. Changing the volume is a bit more irritating however, having to delve into System prefs if it isnt only iTunes or Quicktime I want to change the volume of. But I am soon investing in some nice beasty speakers (the original speakers dont quite cut it for me) so that will make everything easy.
So there you go, you wouldnt think it but I am actually happier using some PC-style hardware on my Mac. It feels much nicer to use, and its almost like using a new computer. A blessing in disguise one might say.
I switch on the Mac and it starts typing 3333333 and 4444 in my login screen by itself, I just thought it was still wet so I stood it upside down for a few hours or so. I then tried again and no luck. The keys simply would not work.
I removed the keys again and put the hair dryer on it in a last attempt to dry it out and hopefully fix it. But still no joy.
I realised I'd completely goosed my eMac's keyboard Sad
Lesson learned - never use water on a keyboard or near one, no matter how petty the amount.
I decided to try and get a replacement today. It was a hard job, the Apple ones are too expensive and basic so I decided to opt for a different brand of USB keyboard. Next to impossible, in the local Dixons and branch of The Computer Shop near us nearly all the keyboards were PS/2 connections and the ones that weren't were expensive cordless USB ones.
Then I came across a nice £30 Chicony USB cordless keyboard/mouse set. I liked it. Sure, it was black and silver and clashed with my eMac's white, but it goes with my Hewlett Packard Deskjet 5650 printer so not all bad. The software it came equipped with was Windows, but I decided to pay the £30 and give it a try.
Low and behold it worked! And I must say using cordless hardware is so much nicer, and this keyboard is much nicer to use than the one that came as standard with my Mac. The mouse is nice too, having 2 buttons and a scroll wheel is like driving a Mercedes compared to the 1 button mouse I was used to.
The only gripes I have with it, which are fairly minor, is the eject function. At first I crapped myself thinking I can't eject discs but right click and eject works nicely when there is a disk in the drive, and iTunes can eject the drive for you. Changing the volume is a bit more irritating however, having to delve into System prefs if it isnt only iTunes or Quicktime I want to change the volume of. But I am soon investing in some nice beasty speakers (the original speakers dont quite cut it for me) so that will make everything easy.
So there you go, you wouldnt think it but I am actually happier using some PC-style hardware on my Mac. It feels much nicer to use, and its almost like using a new computer. A blessing in disguise one might say.
