[NA] Keyboard fail [NA]

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Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
What could make random keys on a laptop keyboard suddenly fail?
There has been no fluid spills, no mechanical damage, it does get heavy use.
Occasionally in the past there has been a crumb or gradu making the odd key stick but that has always been easily rectified.
Could it be a dirty connector?
For the last week, these keys have not worked at all
five
six
left side CTRL
Delete
dash
I think there are others.

Dell Latitude fifty three hundred, 2 yrs old.
 
Is the battery hot? We had a couple at work fail and swell under the keyboard.
 
Definitely dirt can be a cause of mechanical failure... among other causes.
 
swelling battery = the tiny plastic ribbon connector got slightly dislodged.

Dells are pretty easy to user-service if you have one of those iFixit-style screwdrivers with the 500 bits. Knowing your battery is swelling is worth cracking the case to have a look around. I just replaced one in a Dell XPS and it was about 2x its stock thickness and causing random havoc on the thing's operation. $50 on eBay and it's right as rain.
 
Keyboards, especially Dell laptop keyboards, don't last forever. I've replaced the keyboard twice on the Dell laptop I'm using now, and now some of the number keys have failed again.

But I'll never buy another Dell, too many random annoyances and the first suggestion from their tech support is usually to reinstall Windows.
 
But I'll never buy another Dell, too many random annoyances and the first suggestion from their tech support is usually to reinstall Windows.
Same here, even though my lemon Dell was a long time ago. Luckily it was under warranty. It had a series of seemingly unrelated problems. They replaced the motherboard twice before they figured out it was the heat sink causing overheating.
 
I am with you on the Dell issue; I thought I was the one who first discovered it!

This is the laptop which, when I asked Dell for help figuring out a hung cursor in the first month of life (it still does it btw) their tech support logged on and it emerged bricked. After blaming MS, they insisted I need to buy a further warranty for them to consider my issue.
Someone here reminded me that a credit card challenge would get their attention; it did not but I at least had a successful dispute (yay, Amex) and got a free defective laptop. Had to pay my IT guy to revive it and it's been tolerable for 2 years.

I think I will open it out of curiosity, but buy an Acer or HP shortly.
 
What could make random keys on a laptop keyboard suddenly fail?
There has been no fluid spills, no mechanical damage, it does get heavy use.
Occasionally in the past there has been a crumb or gradu making the odd key stick but that has always been easily rectified.
Could it be a dirty connector?
For the last week, these keys have not worked at all
five
six
left side CTRL
Delete
dash
I think there are others.

Dell Latitude fifty three hundred, 2 yrs old.
I was going to say humidity could contribute to corroded contacts, but I don't think that would be a problem in West Texas.
 
When I traveled for work, I noticed that lots of 'road warriors' used Dell laptops. When I asked why, the answer was 'corporate ships it to me and once it either breaks or 12 months are up, they send a replacement'.

Dell makes it's money selling managed services, the laptops are consumables.
 
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