M17x R1 Keyboard Issue

I posted a while back about an issue where my keyboard wasn't responding properly to keystrokes once I updated my BIOS past the A03 release. Reverted back to A03.

Once A07 was released, I went for it and installed it. Everything was fine until one day the issue happened again. Typing on the keyboard meant holding down the key for several seconds so the keystroke actually showed on the computer.

I then noticed that this happens when the computer is booted and upon loading W7 x64 the num lock key is not on. It will sometimes come on once you've typed in the password and all is well. It will sometimes come on right when windows is showing that it is loading before logging in. It sometimes won't come on at all and this is where the issue is present only AFTER turning on caps lock. At that point the keystrokes only count when holding down the key for several seconds and that will continue until caps lock is turned off. Sometimes the issue is present immediately without caps lock and num lock down being on. One more thing... Num Lock will not light up via the num lock button if it didn't automatically turn itself on once windows booted.

Sorry if this is confusing but has anyone seen or dealt with this issue at all? I have a feeling it has to do with the Media Bar/AlienFX setup. Pls give me your thoughts or questions. Thank you.

 

Is it possible the ribbon cable has become unseated partially? Have you checked to make sure it has a good connection?

 

I actually did check for that last time I cleaned it out. =(

 

Have you thought of doing a full power drain (removing the CMOS coincell battery too)?

 

I had done that before also, BUT that was before the issue happened. I'll give it a shot.

 

Just a reminder:
-remove power cord.
-unplug system battery.
-remove the back plate hold in place by two screws (hidden by the system battery) you'll get access to the ram slots, system fan, HDDs etc.
-near the system fan you'll see the CMOS coincell battery, unplug it.
-press the power button for like ~30 seconds to drain remaining 'juice'
-put everything back together in reverse order and see if you have the same issue.

 

Hmmm, has anything been spilt into the keyboard? I've seen very similar effects in the past, often some time after the actual event.

The keyboard is a simple array of connections and is polled/scanned with quite a high impedance system. A simple bit of muck inside and you can get quite unpredictable effects. These can then come and go (or alter) with a change in the ambient temperature or humidity.

I would recommend a new keyboard would solve the problem. Perhaps you have a friend that you could swap keyboards with for a while to see if the problem moves?

Paul.

 

To my knowledge, I have NEVER spilled anything on this computer's keyboard. I try to clean out the keyboard every 2 weeks. The keyboard never gives me any problems if that num lock key happens to come on while loading windows. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else in Tucson with an M17x =P

 

Just in case, I did what you suggested Katalin_2003 and removed the battery + CMOS Batt and reset the Bios. Reset my settings. I won't be able to tell if it was effective for a while though. First boot, it start properly which it normally does 50% of the time anyhow. I'll keep an eye on how many times it functions correctly from here on.

 

Okay. New Correlation. I did the complete power drain and started it back up, reset my BIOS settings and turned on the status screen with the quick mem test to see what's going on. The mem test goes fine, it completely goes through and doesn't throw any errors up.

The thing I noticed though... If the Scroll Lock, Caps Lock, and Num Lock are all on with the Caps Lock Flashing. The keyboard will work normally in Windows. Otherwise, they do not come on, the keyboard will not function. Finding the codes in a previous post say memory issue. Memory is fine though. I'm thinking I need to call up Dell on this one.

 

Sounds like a plan man, or maybe the keyboard is just defective?

 

I had a similar issue with my R1, Check to see if it has slow keyboard response outside of windows like at a command prompt. For me it ended up with dell coming out and replacing my keyboard and that didnt work so the replaced my motherboard and that did fix the issue.

 

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

 

Sorry to drudge up old Posts but I have contacted dell and had this issue looked at 4 times by them, 2 techs and 2 mail ins. Problem is still occurring. I got a video of it this time and called Dell again, talk to a troubleshooter and showed the video. Dunno what is gonna happen with it now, but here is the video.

My Alienware M17x R1 still broken after 4 repairs. - YouTube

Any comments or suggestions would be helpful.