If you have been in IT long enough, you know very well that trouble seeks you out at most opportune moment. Just when you need your computer the most for an example, that a hard drive will go. Luckily for me this week when I am attending Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) upgrade rotation for Exchange 2013, it happened to be not that extreme but to the point where it was extremely frustrating and annoying.

2 days into training, I noticed that my keyboard decided to get stuck on a certain key. On first instance, it happened to be delete key. Imaging moving your cursor to the start of bunch of notes you were taking from the talented instructors and you watch the notes disappear in front of your eyes. I didn’t have luxury to reboot my machine at the time so I made sure I keep my cursor at end of the notes I was taking so I can limp along until the break.

Much needed break didn’t come fast enough, but eventually it did. I tried a few things to no avail. Instructions began again. I limped along. While reboot did not solve the issue, it seemed to have gone away in the evening when I got back to my hotel room. Unexplained weirdness, I thought. Next couple of days went uneventful.

Then came today. When I am preparing for exam, reading my notes and taking some more from different reference sources. All of a sudden a bunch of characters started appearing in my notes, as if I held the “>” key hostage and it wouldn’t stop as if it’s life depended on it. Here we go again I thought. I had skipped dinner. I was hunkered down, deep in the weeds, trying to cram as much information as I can in my brains for tomorrow’s exam day, and system decided to go rebel! Not now, please!

Somehow, I decided to quickly trace my steps back to moments before this issue started. What did I do to wake it up? I had just plugged in power as my laptop was running out of juice. I recalled same thing had happened a few days ago in class room! Now that didn’t make sense. Why would plugging in power cause keyboard to go haywire?

That’s when it hit me. When I travel, I carry around my little Bluetooth sculpt mobile keyboard to make most of my long days when I really need to use better keyboard than the built-in laptop keyboard. I haven’t been using it when the issue surfaced. But I had used it on Day 1 and then had it shoved in to my backpack. All while forgetting to turn it off!

Moral of the story, sometimes it’s important to ask if the power is connected to the computer that won’t switch on.

Another mystery solved. Case closed. Go ahead, you can laugh at my expense. Smile

Onto my exam preparations…ciao.