jc79+@andrew.cmu.edu (John Anthony Chanak) (06/29/91)
I have recently purchesed a 33 MHz '486 from Gateway. Everything with the machine was quite fine, except for two problems. One of these is similar to another poster's i/o card problems; mine got hosed after one day of use. Three days later, I got a replacement, and it has worked fine. However, my biggest complaint is with the company's "AnyKey" keyboards. The concept is nice, the key layout isn't bad, and the feel is nice if you don't like clicky keyboards. However, this is the first time I have EVER managed to get a KEYBOARD to crash. It is really rather easy to do. I enjoy using norton commander in a text window for various purposes. (under windows) However, every so often I need to use it a lot, and like to flip into full-screen mode by pressing <alt> <enter>. However, when I press this key combination, the keyboard program light blinks, norton commander goes into full screen mode, but the keyboard now pretends that the <alt> key is always pressed. The only way to undo this is to reset the keyboard, ie <ctl><alt><suspend macro>, which takes a few moments. Even so, I can't usually manage to use <alt><enter> to get back into windows mode-- it just won't work. After a few tries, some of the num-lock, scroll-lock, and caps-lock keys light up, and the keyboard completely hangs. I have not yet found a way to unhang it, other than unplugging the keyboard from the computer. (Works 1/2 the time) Otherwise, I have to completely power-cycle the machine-- hardware reset does NOTHING. Well, I figured windows might be the culprit. I started up in generic DOS 4 (NOT from my hard drive-- used the MS-DOS startup) and proceeded to press <alt> <enter> a few times. It hung, just as before. Well, I called gateway, and they sent me a nice shiny new anykey keyboard. I tried this one, and it actually worked for a little while-- though the program light still blinks when pressing <alt> <enter>. However, after about an hours testing, it hung just like the other keyboard-- but it would NOT unhang-- no power-cycling keyboard resetting, or any other effort of mine was able to recover this keyboard. The computer would not even boot with this sucker attached-- it would give a keyboard error, and ask me to press F1 or F2 to boot or do diagnostics. (With the keyboard hung, this did little good) So, I go back to the original keyboard, and it behaves the way it originally did. Well, by now I figure I have a keyboard-eating motherboard. Not so. I took an older gateway keyboard (101 key, came with a year old 486 25) and it worked just fine. I could not get it to do anything wrong, no matter how hard I tried. So, my big question is, am I the only one that has been having trouble with this keyboard? Has anyone else had any major problems with it like this? I'm in the process of getting a standard 101 key keyboard from Gateway at the moment. If they don't get it right this time, I'm still within my 30 day waiting period.... (Sorry this has been so long winded!!) -John