(Originally posted at Facebook and Google Plus, now updated)

We have an Asus eeePC netbook with a weird problem. First, it won’t connect wirelessly to a wireless router twenty feet away. That’s some glitch I can probably figure out. But secondly, when I try to use the keyboard I get some patternless behavior which causes the keys to jump between the lower and upper case functions each has. So if I type a p I get an asterisk and so on. Has anyone ever seen this before and know of a solution?

Subsequently I’ve done nearly 100 Windows Updates, tried to download BIOS updates for the netbook, cabled it directly to the router with an Ethernet cable (that does get me access to the Net, but the keyboard problem remains), and thought of throwing it out the window. I’ve learned that I can replace the keyboard for about $25 and find a USB wireless adapter for about the same price (although I suspect that plugging that in would just confuse the Windows 7 OS), so now I have to decide if it’s worth the trouble. The machine has sat on a closet shelf since about December of 2010 with no one needing to use it. The problems were only discovered when my sister wanted to borrow it to take on a trip to SF last week. Once they surfaced she decided not to bother. As it turned out the place she and her family stayed at in Baghdad-by-the-Bay (h/t Herb Caen) had a business center to which she had access any time of day or night, so the netbook was unnecessary anyway.

If many hotels have that kind of access to the Net as part of their amenities, why would I carry the thing along? I don’t need to be in touch with anyone 24/7, just maybe once or twice a day to check mail. So maybe it’s not worth the $50 to get it working.