BarryMurphy
Technical User
Until a couple of months ago, I had a really good computer, but it broke down and due to an important deadline approaching, I needed to acquire another one immediately. I bought one in an auction and picked it up the next day. (Actually, the seller arranged to meet me at his car, and we transacted there, which should have aroused my suspicion.) Afterwards I kicked myself for not noting his vehicle registration number because the system turned out to be very much inferior to that described in the auction listing.
According to System Information, the CPU is x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~1397 Mhz (it was supposed to be 2.8 Gig), it has 512MB RAM and Windows XP Home Edition SP2 is installed (I have XP Professional on disc, but have not so far installed it because it is the pre-Service Pack version and it takes ages to download the SP files over my dial-up modem).
Anyway, apart from the slow CPU, I have serious problems with the keyboard. Most importantly, whenever I type with the Internet connected, the computer frequently freezes for quite long spells (I am guessing 15-20 seconds or more) and also after a few seconds typing, invariably my Internet connection goes down.
This creates real difficulties because the work I do requires me to be connected to the Internet.
Another quirk is that some of the special keys do not work properly as follows:
1. " and @ are reversed, i.e " is on the 2 key and @ is on the ' key.
2. Instead of ~ being on the ` key, I get a non-standard symbol, ¬.
3. On the 3 key instead of # I get £ (this is another non-standard symbol).
4. Neither of the symbols that should be rendered by the backslash key are available on my keyboard. What should be a backslash is a # and what should be a vertical bar is a ~.
Another problem is that the backspace key occasionally stops working, forcing me to select and delete text instead.
I have tried swapping keyboards and modems, but the problems persist. I certainly intend to buy a new computer when I can afford it but for now I am stuck with this one and have make the best of it. I would appreciate any suggestions for solving my keyboard problems, especially the Internet fault.
According to System Information, the CPU is x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~1397 Mhz (it was supposed to be 2.8 Gig), it has 512MB RAM and Windows XP Home Edition SP2 is installed (I have XP Professional on disc, but have not so far installed it because it is the pre-Service Pack version and it takes ages to download the SP files over my dial-up modem).
Anyway, apart from the slow CPU, I have serious problems with the keyboard. Most importantly, whenever I type with the Internet connected, the computer frequently freezes for quite long spells (I am guessing 15-20 seconds or more) and also after a few seconds typing, invariably my Internet connection goes down.
This creates real difficulties because the work I do requires me to be connected to the Internet.
Another quirk is that some of the special keys do not work properly as follows:
1. " and @ are reversed, i.e " is on the 2 key and @ is on the ' key.
2. Instead of ~ being on the ` key, I get a non-standard symbol, ¬.
3. On the 3 key instead of # I get £ (this is another non-standard symbol).
4. Neither of the symbols that should be rendered by the backslash key are available on my keyboard. What should be a backslash is a # and what should be a vertical bar is a ~.
Another problem is that the backspace key occasionally stops working, forcing me to select and delete text instead.
I have tried swapping keyboards and modems, but the problems persist. I certainly intend to buy a new computer when I can afford it but for now I am stuck with this one and have make the best of it. I would appreciate any suggestions for solving my keyboard problems, especially the Internet fault.