PANIC - Space bar not working student has to finish assignment!!!

Lady_K

My daughter has win xp laptop and suddenly the space bar is not working. It was ok last night but she's a student nurse and has to hand a big assignment in on Friday and she hasnt finished it yet!

She says everything else seems ok but shes only just found it so not sure if anything else will turn up. Is this fixable without it having to be looked at in a shop? She is just able to type with no spaces all joined up. Shes in a big panic!!! Any advice appreciated

Skyhigh

Reasons that keys on a keyboard may not function:

Key may be 'stuck' as in, if its pressed too hard it can get wedged in position.

Key may be sticky, due to something being spilled on it.

Spring may have gone (pushes the key back up after its pressed).


If its really broken and not working at all, you may want to simply try prising the key off and checking that the spring is there, or that its clean or simply aligned correctly.
- There is a possibility that you may snap the key, as they 'clip' on, but if its not working at all, then you have nothing to loose.


There are two ways to get around a broken space bar problem:
1) Plug in another keyboard, many laptops have a keyboard serial port or USB port that you can plug a standard keyboard into.

2) Open a file saved on the laptop with a 'space' in it (usualyl most text files).
Highlight the space. Press CTRL+C (copy).
You now have a 'space' saved to your clipboard.
Press CTRL+V (paste), this will paste a space.

Therefore when you can't get a replacement and you really NEED a space, you can simply type a word, paste a space, type a word, paste a space.
Such as: helloCTRL+VworldCTRL+V!!!!!


A shop should be able to fix it, but it will cost (of course).
They may simply clean the key, replace the spring or whatever is required.
Or if its a Keyboard problem, they may have to replace the keyboard unit in the laptop itself.
The units can cost between £5 and £20, but a shop will probably charge between £30 and £200 to replace it....
You may want to get a quote first.

:!:

mikemoate

I honestly don't know if your problem is hardware or software related, but one possible thing to do in the meantime is to put something like / between words and then edit>replace>enter the / in find what >click more>click special>click nonbreaking space>click replace all.

Lady_K

Well she is putting a - in between at the moment to go on msn but she can't really hand in an assignment like that. Its an acer laptop and she is very light handed so I doubt it's from being pushed too hard, its about 2 years old. If she had to take it to a shop is it something they can put right quickly there and then and would it be expensive?

Chuckman

Pressing ALT-32 on your keyboard will do the same job as pressing the space bar.

Whitefiver

In XP, try Start/All Programs/Accessories/Accessability/On-Screen Keyboard.

May get you out of a hole.

Regards,

White.

Lady_K

I just tried alt-32 on mine and it doesnt work but mines win98 would that be why?

Skyhigh

On screen keyboard is a bit....annoying to use, unless you have a touchscreen.

Shop costs?

If they only have to fix the key, then it could be between £5 and £50, it depends how much they feel like.

If they decide they want to replace the entire keyboard key unit, then they most-probably will not have it in stock, therefore will probably have to order it in and that could take from 3 days to 4 weeks.
Plus they'd probably charge between £20 (unlikely) to £150 (or more).

:!:

Whitefiver

I think it should be "Hold down alt Key and hit 32 on the numeric keypad"?

Regards,

White.

wiraone

If you've spare desktop keyboard, check at the back of the notebook, you may see a port with keyboard icon .. plug the desktop keyboard to that port and your daughter problem should be sorted .. well, temporarily.

marka87uk

Alt+0160 is what I often use...