Is my laptop keyboard kaput?

September 11, 2005 9:04 AM

Is my laptop keyboard kaput?

On the top row of letters on a family Dell Inspiron 2600 all but 't' and 'y' do not work. I have hooked an external keyboard up to the machine and it has worked fine, leading me to believe there is some sort of hardware issue. What's the best course of action? Any way to fix this short of ripping out the keyboard and putting a new one in? If I do do that, can I do it myself? Anything I've overlooked? Thanks!

posted by docgonzo to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Have you tried giving it a good cleaning to check for suspicious gunk?
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:22 AM on September 11, 2005

My Dell Latitude CPx (650Mhz pIII) has keyboard problems in that area. I heard about several others with the same problem. Apparently the processor gets too hot and ruins the keys over it.

Mine would work for a while or not. It's so incredibly annoying. My warranty was long gone when it started happening.
posted by redteam at 9:32 AM on September 11, 2005

Well, it could be any of the following: the contacts/buttons on each of the keys are failing, the lines between the keys and the keyboard cable shorted, the keyboard control/marshalling chip partially failed, the cable from the keyboard to the mainboard failed, or, worst of all, some part on the motherboard failed.

Hope for the first one. A good cleaning would probably fix that. None of the other causes are all that fun. All the others require replacing the keyboard. Except that last one.

Laptop keyboards are surprisingly replaceable, though. Most you can just pick up out of the laptop after some careful unhooking. Some require the removal of a faring and a screw or two.
posted by maschnitz at 9:52 AM on September 11, 2005

Oops: I guess it takes eight screws to remove a 2600 keyboard, not two.

And I guess replacement keyboards are not horribly expensive.

I'd just plan on going this route.
posted by maschnitz at 9:59 AM on September 11, 2005

If you're going to replace, refurbished and used laptop keyboards are particularly cheap and plentiful on eBay.
posted by mendel at 10:57 AM on September 11, 2005

Mine (Gateway laptop) occasionally has problems... I pop out the screws and tighten the cable that connects the keyboard to the mobo and that fixes it... give that a try. I guess expanding and contracting with heat and cooling can cause the cables to come loose.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:40 AM on September 11, 2005

I once had a Dell latitude (I think the business version of the inspiron? not sure) and a few keys went out. I called their support and they asked me to tighten the screws on the bottom of the computer; some of them were labeled "K" I believe. After doing that my keys came back. I am to this day amazed.
posted by neustile at 1:44 PM on September 11, 2005