RE: caps lock confusion

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> From: Pascal J. Bourguignon Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 10:34 AM
> kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid> writes:
> 
> > I have had this problem occur to me about half a dozen times in
> > the last two weeks (I don't know why, this had never happened
> > before):  Emacs suddenly starts interpreting my keystrokes as if
> > the caps lock key had been pressed (all caps, etc.), except it
> > hasn't been; and if I do press the caps lock key, then Emacs will
> > interpret my keystrokes in the opposite way, as if the caps lock
> > were off.
> >
> > My caps lock key appears to be in perfect order.  It has a little
> > light that indicates when it is on.  And the behaviors of all other
> > applications are consistent with this indicator.  Emacs is the only
> > one whose behavior is backwards.
> >
> > In the past, the only way I have found to solve this problem is to
> > kill and restart Emacs, which I find terribly disruptive.
> >
> > Is there some other way to reset Emacs?
> >
> > Also, any tips that would help me troubleshoot this problem would
> > be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Perhaps you activated caps-mode?
> It would be surprizing since AFAIK, it's not a bundled mode,
> and there's no shortcut binding to activate it.
> Try:  M-x caps-mode RET  to toggle it.

FWIW - I had a similar problem, with a Dell Latitude laptop (D610, if I remember
right). But it affected all apps, not only Emacs.

Dell replaced the onboard keyboard (even though I had the same problem with an
external keyboard) and the motherboard, but that didn't help. Eventually, Dell
replaced the entire laptop (with a D620), and that took care of it.

Dunno if your problem is related (probably not, if other apps are not affected).
If it is, contact Dell. (Googling will also show similar problems reported for
some other laptops, including some IBM models.) Also, try hitting just the Shift
key several times in succession - sometimes that can unblock the problem. (And
be sure sticky keys is turned off.)

HTH.