One of my users requested that she get a new keyboard, preferably an ergonomic keyboard. We had one in stock so I replaced her old one and told her to try the new one out. If she liked it she could keep it. Two days later I receive an email from her saying that she was having problems with her keyboard and needed me to come take a look. I figured it was something along the lines of the drivers needing updating and since I was off-site I decided to give her a call to find out the exact nature of the problem.
She explained to me that the keyboard was great except for the space bar. She couldn’t pop the space bar off the keyboard. I asked her why in the world she needed me to pop off the space bar. She told me that she needed to remove the cotton from underneath the space bar. I was almost afraid to ask why there was cotton underneath the space bar, but I did.
Apparently the space bar was too loud and she thought that she could put some cotton underneath to muffle the sound, but now it was causing the space bar and other keys to stick or become non-responsive. I held back the laughter and the desire to bang my head on the desk at this point. We informed her that keyboards are NOT items that we take apart to work on and that she needed to try out different keyboards at office supply stores and we would order her whichever one was the quietest.
[Picture Source: arachnized Ѫ mechanid (CC)]