I got up Monday morning and tried to use my computer, no response from the keyboard. I spent the day looking for a solution and backing up my data in case I had to reinstall. (This is on Linux Mint 4 KDE version, I'm upgrading to 5 in a few days).
The end result found in the evening? Sometime late Sunday just before I went to bed I must have been trying to change the text size in my browser by holding down the ALT key and using the scroll wheel on my trackball as cookies popped up. How did this cause it? KDE has accessibility features and if you hold a key too long it thinks that you want to use the
slow keys function and pops up to ask if you really do. I think it must have popped up just as I clicked on a cookie (to deny likely) and been clicked on without my even seeing it. The slow keys feature is so handicapped people who have trouble hitting the right key and hit several keys briefly but
only the key they
hold down will register. The keyboard would have responded if I held the keys longer.
I don't know if Windows has an equivalent feature or not (I haven't checked). I do know that after not using Windows for much except the occasional game play going back was painful. I kept trying to switch desktops (there isn't another desktop to go to) and scroll between open programs with the scroll wheel while pointing to the task bar.
To each his own I guess. But I learned something (and turned off the slow keys altogether).
