Does the white lettering on your keys vanish? (laptops, desktop, keyboard)
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I have owned 2 laptops since 2005, a Toshiba and an HP. After using each for a year, the white letters start to vanish from the keys. I used to blame the Satellite, but it's happening on my HP laptop now and it's only 15 months old! T and N are completely gone already. The O looks like a half moon.
I read an article that suggests using Windex to wash oil from your fingers that gets on the keyboard. They're still very glossy, but I'm not going to let my hands dry out and crack so I can type quickly!
Since I don't want to invest in new keys, I'm wondering if anyone has purchased stickers that identify the blank keys. Do they work? I've seen them on Amazon for only a few dollars, but the reviews say they don't last.
This never happened when I used a desktop computer. I think it's because the keys were engraved instead of painted.
I would like to hear from anyone else who has experienced this annoyance. I just read that using clear nail polish helps, but it's a little too late for that. It's a good thing I know how to type, but I still would like to see the letters when my fingertips have a senior moment.
Note: Please no comments about learning to touch type better.
My A, E and S is completely gone. The D and C are not looking so good. The others still look normal. Good thing I don't still play third person shooter, the whole left half of the keyboard would be blank. It's a logitech keyboard.
The nail polish would probably work well but as you mentioned it's alittle late for that now. If I was going to do that I'd be sure to wait until the warranty was up.
I see they have stickers but I'd probably just use some white nail polish.
I have owned 2 laptops since 2005, a Toshiba and an HP. After using each for a year, the white letters start to vanish from the keys. I used to blame the Satellite, but it's happening on my HP laptop now and it's only 15 months old! T and N are completely gone already. The O looks like a half moon.
I read an article that suggests using Windex to wash oil from your fingers that gets on the keyboard. They're still very glossy, but I'm not going to let my hands dry out and crack so I can type quickly!
Since I don't want to invest in new keys, I'm wondering if anyone has purchased stickers that identify the blank keys. Do they work? I've seen them on Amazon for only a few dollars, but the reviews say they don't last.
This never happened when I used a desktop computer. I think it's because the keys were engraved instead of painted.
I would like to hear from anyone else who has experienced this annoyance. I just read that using clear nail polish helps, but it's a little too late for that. It's a good thing I know how to type, but I still would like to see the letters when my fingertips have a senior moment.
Note: Please no comments about learning to touch type better.
I've had some issue with the letters wearing off on my old laptop, but I never typed on the built in keyboard that much (I always used a full size keyboard when I could).
About 7 years ago I switched from Qwerty to Dvorak keyboard layout. I used stickers on two of my keyboards for the first year and it was a mixed bag. On one keyboard they were a bit big for the key tops and started peeling up after just a couple of weeks. The other one wasn't too bad, but there were a few keys where they weren't lined up just right and started to peel from where my fingers hit the labels that were right at the edge.
The labels were also too thick to allow the home key bumps to come through, so I had to trim those two and they peeled much faster than the others.
If you go with the labels I'd suggest lining them up just a tiny bit away from the direction that your fingers are going to come from, since that's where they seem to peel (as you drag your fingers over the edge of the key and the label). For instance H would be a tiny bit off center to the left, G would be a tiny bit off center to the right, and Q would be a tiny bit to the top. If the label sits right at the edge of the key in the direction that your finger crosses, you'll find them peeling much faster.
I ended up relabeling the first one with a p-touch so that I'd have labels that were just big enough to cover the letters, but not big enough that they went to the edge. The p-touch labels are thinner, aren't laminated with clear plastic, and will wear out after a year or two, but you can replace them as needed.
Fading keys? Huh? You must have oily fingers because I've never heard of...
ok I'll stop. hehehe It happens to everyone. It is very common.
Your Desktop keyboard that did not do this did not have engraved keys. It just had a better quality ink. Black ink doesn't wear like white ink does. Notice we never had these problems in the past when we all had white keyboards with black ink'ed letters. (It's not truly an ink but I am just using that term).
For a laptop you would be really surprised how cheap a replacement keyboard is. Google it. Even on my very expensive laptop a replacement keyboard is $20 and takes about 10 minutes to swap. Although Asus seems to have used some quality "ink" because my keyboard isn't even a little faded.
Of course you could learn to type. See attached picture of a keyboard one of our secretaries use. I offered to buy her a new keyboard. "Why?" she says "This is the best keyboard I've ever had....". She doesn't need ANY letters. I call it her QW (pronounced QWUH) keyboard, because it isn't ERTY anymore...
Yep. I'm going to have to do something about that on one laptop. I used to be able to buy presstype transfer lettering. A covering with workable fixative made that work for a while. There are "skins" that protect keyboards from spilled drinks, but those are like trying to work through condoms.
I have a four-year-old Lenovo T61 that gets fairly heavy use with absolutely zero fading on any of the stickers they put on top of the keys. And trust me, if you actually care that your labels are fading, I use the keyboard way more than you do. I used to wear the WASD keys off a (desktop) keyboard in about a month or two when I was a teenager, so it just depends on the quality of the keyboard/laptop. I'm not sure that non-fading stickers are real selling feature, which is probably why the cheap consumer laptops cut a corner there.
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When I look sideways (?) at my (regular) keyboard, I can see that the *missing* letters, on the picture, are the same as the keys on my keyboard that are really shiny !!
I can also see that the letters are a press-on sticky label.
Does that prove that a series of press-on letters about the same size, could be used to *replace* the missing letters ?
Harry mentioned something like that !
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine
on my very expensive laptop a replacement keyboard is $20 and takes about 10 minutes to swap.
The link for the replacement keys are 5 bucks a letter !!!
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T and N are completely gone already. The O looks like a half moon. 
I call it her QW (pronounced QWUH) keyboard, because it isn't ERTY anymore...
