HP Wireless Elite Keyboard vs. Logitech Illuminated Wired Keyboard
Posted: Monday, November 22, 2010
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
I type a lot. I mean a lot. But I never thought I would wear out my keyboard. My husband, Bernd, types much harder than I do and so he may have had something to do with it.
I found myself wanting to swear at my keyboard and so I knew it was time to get a new one. The "T" key had been iffy from day one, but suddenly it was barely working at all. The space bar needed extra force and maybe an extra tap or two to actually move ahead. The "A" key had become quirky and the "D" didn't always do as it was told. Other keys were on the verge of revolt and so I decided to replace the lot of them.
They did not have the fantastic selection that I had anticipated. Mostly what they had were wireless keyboards. I can understand the allure; no wire hanging down to tangle in your feet when you cross your legs. You could sit ten feet from the monitor if you wanted (but why would you really) and easily put the keyboard in your lap (ditto). Just one problem. Several years back we had purchased a wireless mouse. We spent so much time trying to get it to work and keep it working (the computer would "lose" it all the time) that we finally went back to a wired mouse. I do not have all that much faith in the wireless technology. Call me old fashioned. I call me practical.
The trouble was that all of the wired keyboards were more money than I wanted to spend. Quite a bit more. I thought I had settled on a keyboard when another customer arrived with an employee. The employee told the customer that he preferred Logitech products for all his peripherals. When I asked about the HP Wireless Elite keyboard in my hands, he didn't have anything bad to say about it. He just reiterated his Logitech preference. I mentioned that I had an HP computer and his reply was that then it should work. The HP keyboard was about twice what I thought I should pay for one (yes, I am living in the dark ages) and it was wireless, but I bought it anyway.
I finished up all my errands and shopping and got home, put all the groceries away started some dinner and had just enough time before Bernd should get home to get the new keyboard up and running. Right.
I followed the quick start guide, loaded the software, opened Word and prepared to be amazed. I should say at this point that I purchased one of "them new fangled" low-profile keyboards that are dust resistant, spill proof and quiet. As I started to tap away at the keys, I was impressed with how easily they depressed and the little distance they traveled downward. I was not impressed with the result on my monitor. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nichts. In the middle of futile efforts to get it to work, Bernd arrived home and got involved. We uninstalled and reinstalled the software. We rebooted the computer. We tried different USB outlets. Suddenly, it decided to work. Hooray! But we had no idea why. We took a 30 minute walk and when we came back, Bernd got into the shower and I sat down to catch up on e-mails. But the cursor was missing, the mouse was unresponsive and the keyboard had stopped working.
After he finished his shower, I gave him the news. I got a short lecture about the stupidity of wireless computer peripherals and then we had some dinner and watched a little television. The computer was just going to have to wait until later.
Bernd came up with the brainstorm of pressing the on/off button on the front of the tower. It doesn't really shut down the computer unless you hold it down for a few seconds. When the monitor came back up, the cursor had returned and so we did our best to get it all working again. And it did. For about five minutes. He pressed the on/off button again and this time I told him that if the mouse and cursor work, he should just uninstall the software and hook up the old keyboard. This new one was going back and good riddance. I should mention that while this takes only seconds to tell, we spent hours on it all together.
The next day was Saturday and I dragged him unwillingly along with me to return the thing and get one with a wire. He didn't really have a problem with the old one because, as I said, he hits the keys really hard. But he conceded that since I do so much more typing than he does that I should be happy with my keyboard.
The employee from the previous day remembered me. As I hung my head in a bit of shame, I told him about our experience. He did not say "I told you so." He recommended the Logitech again and went away to let us decide what we wanted to do. I really wanted a new keyboard. I did not want to spend that much money. Bernd was no help at all in making the decision. But then he is like that a lot about buying things.
I ended up deciding on the Logitech Illuminated wired keyboard. It's low-profile, dust and spill proof. The illuminated keys can be turned off if you want and have three brightness levels. It's quiet and I swear I can type faster on it. It cost almost twice what the HP did which made it about four times what I wanted to spend. But we brought it home, plugged it in and it worked. Just like that.
I have not yet installed the software that came with it. I may not. Do I really need the "enhanced functions?" Maybe not. And who is to say their software is any better than HP's. But you never know, one day I might install it just to see. After all, I can always uninstall it. Right?
Author's Note: Several days after I wrote this, I installed the software. It did not come with an "uninstall." Several programs on our computer stopped functioning, the mouse characteristics changed and none of the options allowed me to get it back to where it was previously. I went to the Control Panel and used the Add/Change function to find the Logitech program and uninstalled it. This did not help. Finally, I had to set the computer back in time. Luckily, I had written down the date and time that I had installed the software. So while I can recommend the keyboard, I can not recommend the software.
This Article has been viewed 1,790 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Oh for the days of a typewriter, when whatever went wrong could be seen with a naked eye and replaced easily. Of course you couldn't type so fast! I laughed at the bit about being able to have the wireless keyboard 10 ft away from the monitor!Well, all's well that ends well, right? Happy unhampered typing...Hi Jennifer.
It's all just lessons in living ... and using a computer. Actually, I wouldn't go back to the days of typewriters. Mistakes were so much harder to fix. When I first learned to touch type, the only way to fix an error was to go back to it and use a really rough eraser on it that had a brush on the other end so you could hopefully flick away the eraser crumbs so that they wouldn't fall into the typewriter and gum it up. Then you had to scroll the platen back into place and hope the paper didn't slip and that you could resume typing right in line with where you left off when you went back to fix the mistake. The IBM electric Selectrics were a little nicer than the manual I learned on, but they still had their problems.
I find it to be much more enjoyable to type the whole thing out, read it over for errors and then hit the print button. I consider that to be a vast improvement. Now if they could just get their darn software straightened out. Luckily, it wasn't necessary to the functioning of the keyboard.
And I really do love this new keyboard!
Big hugs and thanks for reading!
DianneHa ha, you've reminded me of my typing days. I'd forgotten. I wrote a novel by hand once and typed it out - what a nightmare! Okay okay, I'll backtrack and say I prefer the computer!
I had to laugh at the timing on your story because my computer is giving me fits.I have an HP wireless keyboard and mouse. The mouse went down a long time ago and now the board is going but for the money I've had a good run. I could feel your frustration and see you fussing at the keyboard. Thanks for lightening my day.Hi Linda.
How did you ever get the darn thing to work ... both of them actually? Bernd and I are not computer geeks by any means, but we are also not totally in the dark about them and we couldn't manage it.
There's no frustration and no fussing now. Thank goodness! Nothing like having the creative juices flowing and no quick and easy way of getting it all down.
Thanks for reading and commenting. It's always good to "hear" from you.
Hugs,
Dianne
Technology is a blessing and a curse, isn't it? I love my computer when it's working well...AND I know what I'm doing. (the last part is a biggy) I dread the day when my computer decides it's time to leave this life and I have to get a new one. It will mean putting out even more money to have someone put all my stuff from this one onto the new one, cuz that is WAY beyond my capabilities. :) It will also mean I'll have to learn a new system,since I have Windows XP.Hi Joyce.
Ditto to all that (except maybe knowing what I'm doing). Especially having to learn a new system. I LIKE Windows XP. Hopefully that won't happen for a while (imagine my fingers crossed).
Thanks for stopping by. It's always a pleasure.
Hugs,
Dianne
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.