I Say No to Wireless Devices

My wireless keyboard is not talking to my computer. It is a beautiful keyboard. I love it more than any other I have ever owned. (A Logitech diNovo Edge if you is curious.) Before I left it was in perfect harmony with my laptop. Upon my return, despite being fully charged, despite multipe restarts, despite being placed so close to the computer they are as one, my laptop will not have a bar of it. This is unhappymaking.

I have had many wireless mouses and keyboards over the years. None of them has been functional for more than a few months at a time. But my diNovo Edge worked for six months straight. But now after a few months of being idle it is without function.

So this is me declaring that I am finished. No more wireless devices. Most of them are battery chewers, anyways. From now on I will be plugging my laptops and mices into the USB port.

I suspect it’s like the fountain pen. Wireless devices will work perfectly in some far distant future when they’re largely redundant.

In conclusion: Grrr.

7 comments

  1. Lisa on #

    Don’t blame the keyboard right away. If you’re using Vista, that could easily be the culprit. I have had my non-wireless mouse stop working on Vista more than once. It wasn’t broken. The first time I had to reinstall Vista. The second time updating the drivers worked. It’s also stopped connecting to my wireless printer. Reinstalling the drivers always gets it working again in this case.

    So try using the keyboard on another computer if you can. If it isn’t broken try reinstalling the drivers. If that fails you might consider reinstalling Vista. I know that seems extreme, but that blasted virus of an OS will stop working for non-wireless input devices too. It would be ridiculous to buy a less sexy keyboard and then have it stop working too.

  2. Lauren on #

    That is the feeling I get when My mouse/keyboard doesn’t work. I finally switched over to USB cords, and I love it. good choice Justine, and sorry about the keyboard.

  3. Ted Lemon on #

    This happens to me occasionally. Just delete the pairing on the laptop, and re-pair, and it’ll come back. It’s not rocket science, and it’s certainly not magic. I think smart people get frustrated when computer fu doesn’t work because we’ve read too much science fiction in which the magical toys all work flawlessly.

    But we don’t have that attitude about our cars. If something goes wrong, we don’t get disgusted and put the car in the garage, never to use it again. We figure out what’s wrong and move on.

    Your wireless keyboard is just like a car. If it’s not running right, fix it, or have it fixed. Don’t throw it out! You said you love it! How do you think it’s going to feel gathering dust in a drawer somewhere? :’)

  4. Eugene on #

    This might be obvious, but have you tried pressing the resync button on the keyboard? The internet suggests unplugging the USB dongle from the computer, plugging it back in, then pressing resync.

  5. Justine on #

    You’re all adorable. Yes, I have tried every one of those things. (Though what the hell is Vista? Sounds unpleasant.)

    Lauren: I’m joining you in USB land.

  6. John H on #

    I sometimes wonder if they make these devices to fail after a certain length of time so you have to go buy a replacement. Nothing like built-in obsolescence to keep revenues up…

  7. MotherReader on #

    Our wireless mouse on the family computer bugged me so much that I had to insist we go back to wired – overruling my techie husband and semi-techie teen – because I could not stand replacing the batteries or somehow fixing the thing every week. Very few things are more annoying than being right in the middle of something online and the stupid cursor just won’t move.

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