Dell Laptop keyboard problems

[Madman]

I have a Dell 5150 laptop that misses random keystrokes all the time. It isn't one specific key or after a certain amount of keystrokes - it just all of a sudden misses one keystroke.

Oh, and its never more than one in a row....always just one.

Any ideas?

[ken0042]

Have you tried hooking up an external keyboard? Not saying you should have to use it all the time, but to determine if the issue is with the keyboard or if there is some other issue like Windows freezing up on you.

[Madman]

Good call, I'll try that tonight.

[sclitheroe]

Try looking for any driver and/or BIOS updates too - the issue on other machines that I've seen can sometimes be related to drivers or firmware for the touchpad and keyboard. Some Macs have actually had issues like this in the past.

[mykalberta]

You might want to see if somehow the cable has come loose. On alot of those notebooks its just a ribbon cable inserted intoa connector on the motherboard. I cannot see how it would have come loose but its worth a shot.

There are normally screws on the underside of the laptop and plastic clips near the esc and del keys to pop the keyboard off and take a look.

[Madman]

I did some random reading online and read that some people with other brand laptops having similar problems removed their batteries to solve the problem.

Amazingly enough, I think that worked for me as well.

Now, what possible tie a charging battery to the keyboard missing strokes is beyond me - any ideas?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Madman

Now, what possible tie a charging battery to the keyboard missing strokes is beyond me - any ideas?

The keyboard needed to be "cold booted." As long as the battery was still inside, there would still be a milli-amp of power going to it. Unplugged and no battery it allowed it to cold boot. (That's my guess anyways.)

Good to know. I'll add that to my list of things that a cold boot fixes.

[Madman]

Actually, I haven't put the battery back in.