Moving at Both Ends Again!

[joey3032]

Well now we may be onto something. My CAPS Lock has been functioning....or not functioning is should say lately...and I don't think it's a coincidence that we are having similar Chief issues along with the keyboard/pc issues. I have had a pretty good few days though. Everything is working as it should. (Fingers now crossed as I pound on my wooden desk)

[dr0591]

It's doing it again -- and this time Shift-Numlock isn't fixing it. It seems to be this one plan that the designer and I keep passing back and forth to work on that screws everything up. Chief works fine until I open this plan, then everything switches to Concentric-Only editing, even new plans and other plans that worked fine just a minute before!!

It can't be hardware-related, because everything works normally until I open the offending plan, which then screws everything up until I shut down Chief and re-start it. And I don't think it's a preference set in the plan -- at least it's nothing I can see. Edit Behavior preferences are set to Default.

I think the plan must be corrupted in some way, but I have no idea how to fix that. Can I somehow copy everything in the plan into a new plan? The plan is way too detailed to start over from scratch at this point.

Only being able to edit things concentric-ly is making it nearly impossible to get any work done on this plan. Joey, did you figure out anything to do for your Caps Lock problem?

[dr0591]

Would anyone be willing to take a look at this plan, at the risk of possibly ending up with this headache on YOUR computer? I think it does resolve itself when you re-boot the computer (not just re-starting Chief, as I stated earlier).

[joey3032]

Kathleen do me a favor and hold down your "C" key for about three seconds and see if that helps. I use CTRL C a lot while working, and by holding the "C" key down for a few seconds seem to help. Give it a try. And....I only seem to have this problem on shared plans as well. A plan that I start and complete on my machine doesn't do it, but plans that are sent to me almost always have this issue.

[Glenn Woodward]

Kathleen,

Send the plan to me at glennww@ihug.com.au and I will see if I can find anything.

[johnnyprc]

Joey, so you know I've had that happen to me only on plans you've sent me. If that helps you figure it out.

[dr0591]

Joey, I tried what you suggested and nothing happened. BUT SOMEHOW SOMETHING I DID MAGICALLY FIXED IT , so I was able to keep working and send the plan back to the client. But I just opened it again to double-check that it was indeed fixed and the same darn thing is happening again!!!!!!!!!!

So Glenn, I am emailing you the mysterious plan. Please let me know if you can figure out what the heck kind of poltergeist is living inside it. As I mentioned, the client and I pass this plan back and forth frequently via Dropbox, saving it with a new name each time. She doesn't seem to be having problems with it, not that she's noticed anyhow, but she mainly works in CAD.

[Glenn Woodward]

Kathleen,

All looks good to me.

If you want, I would be happy to do a share screen with Skype so that I can see what you are doing and how you have things set up.
My Skype name is glenn-woodward

Otherwise, I think it is one for support.

[perryh]

Based on that, I would think it's a hardware issue, but it also could be some obscure setting.

[dr0591]

Thanks for taking a look, Glenn. I'd love to do the Skype thing, just to try to prove that I'm not hallucinating or simply screwing up something really basic.

You're on the other side of the world, but I'm a real night owl. It looks like you're 14 hours ahead of me. So it sounds like sometime between 9 am - 3 pm your time would be the best time to connect. Name a time and day that's good for you and I'll Skype you.

Perry, if it's hardware-related, it has happened exactly the same with two different mice and two different keyboards. I still think it may be related to my NumLock not working (because of some internal computer setting, not the keyboard itself), but I can't figure out how to fix that.

[jcaffee]

Kathleen,

Run MemTest86 from boot to see if there are hiccups in your memory modules. It's free... http://memtest86.com/

Run three passes, and if there are errors (even one) this can lead to the behavior you're describing.

jon

[dr0591]

Jon, I downloaded MemTest86 and imaged it on a USB but wasn't able to get my computer to boot from it, it said "executable file not found" or something like that.

BUT.........

I broke down and called Microsoft, got through to a real person almost immediately (), and she gave me a fix for my NumLock problem, which also seems to have solved the Chief problem. What she told me to do was to open the on-screen keyboard from Control Panel > Ease of Access, toggle the NumLock key on and off, then close the online keyboard. Voila.

I don't understand why the two are related. But I don't really care at this point. And since it's a fairly easy fix, if it happens again hopefully I can just do the fix again.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. Joey, I wonder if doing this would fix your Caps Lock problem if it happens again?

[perryh]

I guess it was a hardware problem. Have you ever updated your keyboard drivers

[dr0591]

Perry, I guess. The weird thing is that the keyboard works fine when I attach it to my laptop. The problem only occurs with my desktop -- and it's the same problem using two different keyboards. Is that really a hardware problem, or something within Windows? And why on earth should toggling the NumLock on the virtual keyboard fix it??? I tried to download an updated keyboard driver, but it said I had the most recent version.

It's still acting a little funky, but the fix that the Microsoft tech support person gave me fixes the Chief problem, so I'm good for now. :-)