July 15, 2010 | By Jason Judge | General Blogging, Hardware

This is something that has been bothering me on the odd occasion for years. It is intermittent, so is something I have been able to live with, but it would be nice to get to the bottom of it.

Basically, there is a key combination – somewhere around the “A” on my keyboard, probably involving the control and perhaps the shift keys, and is so easy to accidentally press when not being careful, that locks up all my keyboard input.

When I say “locks up”, I mean that the keyboard becomes completely unresponsive. Nothing gets it back, except a full reboot, and if you know how long my PC takes to boot, you would realise it is not very convenient (I do manage to make a cup of tea while it boots, which is a bonus, kind of).

I have tried unplugging and plugging back in the keyboard. I have tried undocking the PC (I use a Toshiba Tecra laptop in a docking bay). I have tried logging off and on again. Yes, I have tried logging off and on again. None of this works; only a full reboot does the job.

It locks up both the external Logitech keyboard and the laptop’s built-in keyboard, so there appears to be no workaround.

So – what could this be? I have a feeling it is some kind of “feature” that is misbehaving, but cannot think what it could be. I have not even been able to find the key combination purposefully to give me any more clues. It just happens, and when it does I know my fingers were pressing some keys around the “A” end of the keyboard.

I have a feeling I will never find a solution to this. Perhaps I need a new laptop.