A Feet Of Engineering

This is back when I was a desktop support temp just trying to learn the ropes. Some users had desktops and others had laptops with docking stations depending on their role, but we support both.

This user had been having trouble for about a week (as far as we know) where their keyboard would mysteriously type random letters and numbers for no reason. She would be typing, and random letters and numbers would show up too. The only way for her to fix it was for her to restart her computer, and it would come back soon after.

With this information from the user, we started troubleshooting. There isn’t much you can do but reinstall the drivers or replace the keyboard. So that’s what we did; the drivers were replaced, and it kept happening. That’s when I was sent with a few others to investigate this super weird issue on site.

This user had a standard setup with a laptop and docking station where a normal user would close the laptop and work off of the separate monitor and keyboard. She decided she liked the laptop keyboard better and the ability to use it as a second screen.

When we approached, it was difficult to keep from laughing since it was apparent what the problem was. The user had just bought a half yoga ball mat to rest her legs on. She had also decided, since she didn’t like the separate keyboard, that she would put it on the ground WHILE KEEPING IT PLUGGED IN. Which is how the yoga ball mat ended up on top of the keyboard.

She would work and want to rest her legs, so she would put them on the yoga ball mat, which would press the keys when she moved it. Then she would get frustrated, take her legs off the yoga ball mat to restart the laptop, fixing the problem. And then restart the process.