Sep 24, 2026, 3:35 AMCame back from the kitchen riding the high of having perfectly poached eggs for makeshift shakshuka and the laptop was like oh you're in a good mood? I can change that
- Sep 24, 2026, 3:35 AM
Replies
- Sep 24, 2026, 3:41 AM
Broken: h, g
F: types lf
R: types or
V: types .v
".": types .v
4: types 94
9: types 94
Shift: sometimes types F12 - Sep 24, 2026, 3:43 AM
So the total of all broken keys since last time is g, h, 5, 6, ?, num1, num minus, circumflex, left ctrl, entf, pos1, f1, f2, f5, f6, f9, files key, and possibly some more
- Sep 24, 2026, 3:44 AM
I'd replace te keyboard, but te screen is dyin too, so at tis point it'd be more reasonable to replace te wole laptop
- Sep 24, 2026, 3:46 AM
I'd clean the keyboard, but speaking from experience, once a keycap is off, it won't go back on again, and the key usually dies with it
- Sep 24, 2026, 3:53 AM
And of course to accomodate keeping a keyboard with the laptop, I have to push it back so far I can't reach the touchpad any more, so I need a mouse.
And oh it gets better! The comma key on my USB keyboard gets stuck each time I press it and because it's a piece of shit foil keyboard I can't even lubricate or clean the fucking key!!!!
- Sep 24, 2026, 3:59 AM
So instead of being snuggled into bed with a warm laptop on my knees, I'm sitting at the kitchen table staring at a screen that's tiny from 1m away and typing on a semi-broken USB keyboard.
Fantastic.
- Sep 24, 2026, 4:02 AM
If you enjoy my suffering, here's the last keyboard drama
- Sep 24, 2026, 4:08 AM
Additionally broken as well: left alt, f4, f8, ä, <, arrow up, numlock, num4.
Full list:
g, h, 5, 6, ?, num1, num minus, , left ctrl, del, pos1, f1, f2, f4, f5, f6, f8, f9, file explorer shortcut key, accents, left alt, ä, <, arrow up, num lock, num4
- Sep 24, 2026, 4:18 AM
Oh and my stock greens went mouldy. Today is NOT my day.
- Sep 30, 2026, 6:35 AM
Ok, so I've memorised the unicode values (ctrl+shift+u) for g/h/G/H and used XKB options to swap right alt and ctrl (there is no right alt on this laptop keyboard so ctrl effectively becomes alt).
The things you do to keep a machine working...
- Sep 30, 2026, 6:37 AM
(left ctrl has been mapped to caps for ages since left ctrl broke)
Wurzelmannwurzelmann@mastodon.wurzelmann.atSep 30, 2026, 6:39 AM@amberage :popcorn:
- Sep 30, 2026, 6:42 AM
@wurzelmann laptops, for reasons beyond me, tend to die quickly in my vicinity 😬 this is my fifth or sixth in as many years.
Blown capacitor (stumbled over the charger, tore the cable, and soldered it back together wrong), fell off the bathtub edge (NOT into the water! floor killed it), fell off again, hinge broke, and now this…
- Wurzelmannwurzelmann@mastodon.wurzelmann.atSep 30, 2026, 6:44 AM
@amberage oh wow, this really sounds bad... 😔
- Sep 30, 2026, 6:45 AM
@wurzelmann I am cursed 🤷♀️