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old3eyes

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#77295 14-Feb-2011 13:07
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I decided to try and breath some life into my wife's old  HP ZE4500 laptop for a work hack. It originally had Win XP home on it  but every 6 months or so it would trash it's self.  I installed Win XP pro as an upgrade and all seemed well until last week  when i loaded work related stuff on it and Outlook  kept auto starting.  So I blew XP away and used a slipstream disk that one of our IT guys made.  Same thing, Outlook express auto started with lots of copies.  Check for viri and malware, none.  Found that Outlook Xxpress was being started  via MSM so i disabled that in the registry.   However  when Office 2003 was installed  Outlook restarted.  This was being started in the Internet options> programs > default email client.  If i changed this to say Opera multiple copies of that would start.   Went back to an old version of Win XP Pro  same problem.

 

I suspect tha there is a hardware problem with the electronics  in the Email softkey on the keyboard.  If it wasn't for the fact that i shelled out $110 for a new battery last week i would bin it.

Is my assumption of this problem  correct.  Did some web searches but didn't turn  up anything that was free.  Most solutions wanted you to pay money  for an answer..




Regards,

Old3eyes


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myopinion
938 posts

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  #439237 14-Feb-2011 13:15
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I would check the keyboard first.



Oblivian
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  #439248 14-Feb-2011 13:41
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Ah right, so using hotkeys to launch stuff?

Yep. Itll be sticking. Common for the left/right click failing to 'click' anymore and become softpress. And also the hotkeys failing. (Seen many in my time ;) )

If I recall it was a possibly a result of a out in a hurry to compete with a competitor using the same chipset/CPU combo again (makers often do this if they are about to be beaten to the punch) and they used the same chassis for a whole pile of them including the business range.


old3eyes

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  #439332 14-Feb-2011 16:38
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Thanx. I don't use the hotkeys but they are my chief suspect. Old laptop about 6 years old so anything can go wrong will..




Regards,

Old3eyes




gzt

gzt
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  #439750 15-Feb-2011 12:38
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If it is a softkey problem it is software controlled - so you can disable/reassign in control panel -> keyboard area.

Also, manually changing the keyboard driver (in device manager) to a standard one (or one without those softkeys) will eliminate that functionality.

b0untypure1
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  #442795 23-Feb-2011 15:51
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try disabling the keyboard and see what happens

as in.... taking it off the laptop. probably easier to remove the sticking button (if thats the prob) first.




gz ftw


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