Strange Laptop keyboard issue.

This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by Richard.

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February 23, 2018 at 4:16 pm #17055
Spedley
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@spedley
Forumite Points: 2
A friend has asked me to look at her keyboard for her. It’s a HP Pavilion P-15 and the keyboard isn’t working properly (happened overnight). It acts like a key is stuck down but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Most keys work fine, except for F1, F2, Shift+C and Shift+W. I’d be quite happy replacing it because an external keyboard works fine … except on the login screen – lower case ‘o’ doesn’t work (have to use alt+111 instead).

Something else just sin’t right and I can’t put my finger on it, any guesses?

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February 23, 2018 at 5:37 pm #17057
Richard
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@sawboman
Forumite Points: 16
You might be able to work it out if you knew the keyboard mapping. I suspect that either a contact fault has developed or the software controller has started to fail. Could dampness have affected the machine? The ‘o’ fault suggests to me that something is producing part of the key scan code and masking what is needed.
February 24, 2018 at 1:46 pm #17076
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
Forumite Points: 4
You could try a keyboard test utility like the one from softpedia.com

This will give you the keboard scan codes as well as the Windows internal key codes and it displays the last key pressed until you hit reset.

If you see a key press before you touch anything then it could be a stuck key
February 24, 2018 at 2:41 pm #17078
Ed P
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@edps
Forumite Points: 39
Good luck – my wife dropped her laptop and it obviously displaced one of the keyboard connections with symptoms very similar to those given. Curing it would have been simply reattaching the keyboard loom but it was one of those laptops built to cause diy frustration (an Asus). The keyboard removal/replacement steps would have taken 4+hours much more than I was willing to do, and too expensive to repair ( the keyboard could not be accessed without gutting all the laptop internals).
February 24, 2018 at 7:33 pm #17096
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
Forumite Points: 4
The other thing that has caught me out is Windows “sticky keys” feature. Make sure this is turned off in the control panel accessability options.

You should have to press a modifier key like CTRL, shift, alt or Windows, 5 times quickly to turn this on but if you hold down one of those keys then auto repeat will do it for you !
February 25, 2018 at 3:18 am #17102
The Duke
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@sgb101
Forumite Points: 5
Ed that’s the cost of “advancement” of the laptop. forever minimising. The smaller it gets the harder and more impossible servicing is.

It is why i’m clinging on to the old Thinkpads.
February 25, 2018 at 9:01 am #17105
Richard
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@sawboman
Forumite Points: 16
I had a similar issue with a Dell portable, a phone call, a diagnostic check and a new key board was on its way. The change over was pretty simple back then, flip a cover, release a fastener or two, unplug; then reverse the process with the new item and it was right as rain. I guess not all progress moves forward.
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