real world puzzle - helping parents to get along with their hardware

[Olaf Doschke]

My parents bought a tablet pc, some extraordinary, expensive and fine piece of a tablet from a manufacturer of tablets having produced such products, as they weren't touch enabled screens but rather a digitizer with inductive pens, precise and used as input device only, not as screen. It's a windows tablet, which is important to know for the puzzle part of this.

Problem no. 1: The device often went through repair mode and/or scanning drives after a failed start.
Problem no. 2: A bluetooth keyboard can be paired but then doesn't work.

I solved both of these problems, but went through false assumptions, some even rather esoteric. I don't assume you will be able to tell what was wrong without some hints, but I'll start without any further hints and will come back here in a few days to see how it goes. Just one other hint: In the end the industry is to blame, not the computer illiteracy of my parents. Actually they aren't illiterate as my father even developed a bridge tournament score evaluation and some other stuff and my mother does movies since now several decades.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Dan Freeman]

You have my condolences.

I'm not at ALL surprised to hear the industry is to blame. At least on the Windows side we're still building computers for nerds.

On the Apple side, one reason Apple's fans are so loyal is they go to great lengths to make sure their products are consumer products from the moment you open the box. (That fit and finish is also why they tend to be more expensive.) They will even stay away from the latest bleeding edge feature through a product cycle to let the technology stabilize and to pre-build the ecosystem to support the feature.

Since your current conundrum revolves around a Windows tablet, I'll take a wild shot in the dark and guess it has something to do with drivers? Doesn't it always?

 

[Olaf Doschke]

OK, good first guess, but no.

First hint: There is no root reason for both problems, they are caused by totally independant things.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[vgulielmus]

Maybe some interferences with other devices, (could be even the door bell) ?

Respectfully,
Vilhelm-Ion Praisach
Resita, Romania

 

[Olaf Doschke]

In regard to bluetooth interferences were an idea I also had, yes. In this same living room some wireless headphone (not bluetooth though) often has problems and the whole wiring of the hifi and tv.

A hint in regard of the problem #2 usb bluetooth keyboard: The windows on-screen keyboard worked normal. The pairing of the usb keyboard also worked fine, that means I could enter a number with 5 digits Windows displayed for pairing and the device was shown as connected. It's batteries also were loaded.

A hint on the problem #1: The tablets power on/off pushbutton has to be pressed a few seconds, before the tablet starts up, to prevent unintended startups. That's actually a normal thing for tablets and smartphones, as they are normally battery driven you don't want to waste energy starting up unintended and perhaps even unrecognized, if the device is in a pocket and muted.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

>In regard to bluetooth interferences were an idea I also had, yes.
I forgot to mention: ... But that was not the reason the keyboard didn't work.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Another hint, which should give you an idea what caused the problem #1: As I already said you have to press the power pushbutton for a few seconds, until the tablet starts. I observed my mother starting the table, she still pressed the button after the display started to show the vendor name. So what happened?

And a hint on problem #2: I myself tried with updating the bluetooth keyboard driver and even de-installing it and finding a better driver online. So I looked for the exact make/model name at the bottom side of the keyboard. While holding the keyboard upside down I unintentionally pressed a key for some time. That key showed up in notepad, which I had opened before to test the keyboard.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Did you accidentally turn on sticky keys while handling the keyboard? I hate when that happens.

My favorite parental debugging came when my mom complained that every time she turned off her computer the phone went dead. It turns out her version of turning off the computer was hitting the switch on the power strip (we discussed shutting down first), and the rocket scientist installer had plugged her cable modem (and phone) into the power strip instead of the empty wall outlet above it.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

No dan, I didn't turn that on accidentally. The tablet came with sticky keys turned on, if I believe my parents. My parents swear they haven't seen the dialog, which appears, if you press down the right SHIFT key for more than 8 seconds. You have thereby solved problem #2, the solution is simply to turn that setting off in the ease of access center and the keyboard works. Not I previously said the on screen keyboard works as usual. It doesn't have that delay the bluetooth keyboard (or any hardware keyboard) has, if sticky keys are turned on. There's no simple way to see that setting in effect.

The cause for problem #1 is quite obvious now, perhaps you didn't address it, because you already see my hint as the solution. Well, you have to know a bit about what happens now and why that causes disc scans and repair mode.

Anyway, I just tested on my android tablet and there you have the same bad behaviour when powering up. I can't tell, if that's also true for iPads, but I fear, too.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

>There's no simple way to see that setting in effect.
Well, besides pressing the right SHIFT for 8 seconds and then click the link to get into the ease of use center.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Everything is obvious once you've found it.

None of this would happen in iOS because there is no comparable behavior. (That I know of, of course. Could be I just haven't fallen prey to them yet.)

 

[Olaf Doschke]

To round this up:

Problem #2 was the sticky keys setting, as Dan correctly answered. That simply shouldn't be a default. It isn't from Microsoft, but from this tablets vendor. It might also only be set for this specific device, as it was a replacement device for my parents, so maybe it's first user did set this wrong and returned it therefore.

Problem #1 is quite clearly pressing the power pushbutton too long. If you have been teached Windows[sup]TM[/sup] only truly has started when the login appears, you press the power pushbutton too long. This way its second functionality kicks in: to turn the device off. As said this is also true for Android.

It's a nice hardware extension and standard to be able to power off a device this way and not need to unplug it or switch off a plug strip. That wouldn't work with devices having their own battery anyway. So it has to be this way anyway, but it could be enhanced: The powering off should only work, after you released the pushbutton, then this powering off while starting up couldn't occur out of a user error, the only unavoidable problem would be your battery is very low so even startup fails.

The power off feature killed the first device and caused many repair mode and disc scanning starts of Windows, as it doesn't like to be powered off while starting up. I have to say this is rather user error, but it could be prevented on the hardware side.

There of course would be another solution, not having a power pushbutton, but a real switch, but this is were we came from last century. My first computers had such "hardwired" switches and turning off the computer while shutting down was something you shouldn't do. The only thing Microsoft did in Windows 95/98 was to display an "it's now safe to turn off your computer" message for the well-behaved and patient users, which didn't powered off their computer beforehand.

Android is one step ahead of Windows, as you need to confirm on screen you really want to power off. Being asked that would have shown my parents they do something wrong when powering on. This thought hasn't struck them, though they know a long press of a power button turns off a computer today.

Maybe we really should have a power on and a separate power off button.

Bye, Olaf.