“I need a new keyboard” says the wife, sitting at her desk across the room.
“What’s wrong with your current one?” I ask.
“I can’t see any of the letters on it.”
I get up and go to her desk. Sure enough, she’s worn the letters off about half her keys.
After a brief discussion of what she wants in the way of a new keyboard, she jumps online and finds one she likes. Soon, I’m out the door to go get her a new keyboard and mouse.
I return from the store with her shiny new computer accessories, a wireless keyboard and mouse.
It should be simple enough to install. You put the batteries in the two components, plug the dongle into an open USB port, turn on the keyboard and mouse, then push the ‘connect’ button on each one so it will talk to the dongle. I do all that and … nothing.
I reboot her computer and try the whole thing again. Still nothing. You should be able to just push the ‘connect’ button on each one and it should connect to the dongle, but I like to be thorough. Still nothing.
I just press the ‘connect’ button on each one. Nothing. I turn each one off, then on, test them, and nothing. Turn them on and off, then push the ‘connect’ button. Nothing.
I move the dongle through the five different USB slots on her computer. Nothing. Try all of the above each time I move the dongle. Nothing.
I decide to see if the things work on my computer or not. Plug the dongle in, turn on the keyboard and mouse, push the ‘connect’ button. They both work. Spend a few minutes doing tasks I normally do (launching a web browser, typing in Libre Office) and everything is just peachy.
Decide to try it on my wife’s computer again. Turn off the computer, plug in the dongle, boot the computer, turn on the keyboard and mouse, push the ‘connect’ button and … I see a cursor moving around on the screen. I launch Libre Office and type some stuff. It worked.
Go figure.
Now my wife has her new toys and I’m the hero because I got it working. Yeah, me.
I want a cookie.
If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum