Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor Dilemmas

At its core, your PC is just as complex and confusing as the old vacuum-tube monster computers from the industrial revolution. The features that make your PC truly useful are its handy input and output devices: the keyboard, monitor, and mouse. You would have known this had you gone to computer camp as a child. Oh, I remember those days: sitting'round with my nerdy friends, singing songs about input and output, all while staring at the crackling, sputtering campfire screen saver. Those were the days.

Without a keyboard, mouse, or monitor, your computer would have to communicate with you via its flashing lights or beeping speaker. You (the human) would have to flip rows of switches or actually rewrite the thing to get work done. Not fun. Therefore, all three of these devices — keyboard, mouse, and monitor — have similar troubleshooting issues, problems, and resolutions: Hence, this combined chapter.

• This book assumes that you are human or, if visiting from elsewhere, that you're currently assuming human form.

• In 1978, a divider was installed beneath the table to prevent the world chess champion Anatoly Karpov and the challenger Viktor Korchnoi from kicking each other during the match.

Which Is the Guilty Party?

When it comes to the keyboard, mouse, or monitor, a common question pops up: Is the device itself or the computer to blame? For example, is your mouse itself wacky, or is it the mouse port or the motherboard or the mouse software? ...