M14x d key not working

Recently, I woke up one morning and the d key on my M14x was not responding. I shook the notebook a bit, and now it only works sometimes. I have no idea why; it was working perfectly when I went to sleep, and I haven't had any problems in the 4 years I have owned this computer.

Any troubleshooting suggestions? I don't want to replace the entire keyboard when only 1 key is malfunctioning.

 

Perhaps something got spilled on the keyboard? Coffee or juice? I would remove the keyboard, and re-insert the ribbon cables carefully. I would also inspect the ribbon cables for damaged pins. I doubt this is a software issue since it works sometimes, but you may want to do a malware scan as well. Chances are the entire keyboard will have to be replaced.

 

Nothing has ever been spilled on this computer, thats the strangest part. It was working fine, I closed it and went to sleep, 6 hours later I woke up and opened it and the d key was malfunctioning.

What do you mean about the ribbon cables exactly?

 

If you're going to replace it anyway, try removing the key cap and check for anything amiss underneath. The rubber dome could be stuck or the plastic retainer clips might be dirty, hindering the scissor movement. Disassemble and clean as much as possible, perhaps a little WD-40 will do wonders as well. Here's a nice, comprehensive guide (lots of pictures).

 

I just took the key off and cleaned it thoroughly, nothing has changed. It actually seems even worse each day, I have to press very hard to get the "d" out now.

 

The M14X keyboard has two wire assemblies that connect to the motherboard. These flat cables are called ribbon cables (or FFC cables). They sometimes don't make solid contact with connectors and need to be re-inserted. Here's pic of the underside of the keyboard. The black cable is the main keyboard cable, the orange one is for the backlight.