Problems with keyboard... NEED ADVICE!!!

Three years reader of this fantastic forum & two years happy owner of M17x R3... until my small daughter played with it and next time I had rebooted I heard loud short beeps. Switched off & on and system has adviced to Launch startup repair, which I did & restored it to the previous successful state.

However something was still wrong. After opening MS Word I've noticed, that the comma button got electrically stuck. I did not press comma button, but sequences of commas appeared on my screen randomly, like ,,,,,,, 5 sec. pause ,,, 3 sec. pause ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and so on.

I have also learned, that 10 buttons of the keyboard stopped working ("x" "c" "v" "m" "," "." "/" "right Shift" "numeric pad Enter" & " ' "). Thicky thing was, that when pressing comma button + v, I got v and when pressing comma+Shift+m I got M. Comma button itself does not work mechanically too.

Checked my system for viruses & malware - no problems.
Checked my registry for buttons remapping - everything is default.

So, I though my keybord got dirty (or my daughter spilled smth on it) and disassembled my laptop. Purchased very small screwdrivers & unscrewed 14 tiny screws at the back of the keybord & cleaned every part of it with 96% medical alcohol. But that did not help.

Furthermore I've noticed, that both buttons of touchpad are not working as well. So, I disassembled the laptop again till I got separated the screen, the keyboard & the touchpad.

Screen: was hoping, that top protection cover is made of thin films and by tearing-off one or two of them I could remove the scratches and make my screen less glossy. NO WAY! Protection cover is made of one piece of plastic & can not be split.

Keyboard: washed with warm water & dried with fan. Left overnight, dried again. All cables & contacts were cleaned with medical alcohol.

Touchpad: cleaned with medical alcohol, incl. areas underneath the buttons.

Assembled back, but sadly the result was still the same.
Except, last evening I have noticed, that 'stuck comma' problem has gone. Left my laptop overnight with Word active & saw no commas in the morning at all.

I can live without touchpad buttons. And if I knew, that the problem is in my keyboard, I could buy a new one and replace. But, if the problem lays in the motherboard, than I have a real pain.

Could someone please share your comments on my problem & give some advice ?
Many thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like keyboard might be broken if keys don't work after the keyboard wash. Best to get replacement (the R3 and R4 keyboards are the same with newer R4 keyboards having a new style windows button). Relatively cheap on ebay if you need one.

Touchpad buttons wise just make sure to enable tap to click (tapping the touch area and two finger tap do leff and right click respectively). That should help you, I don't really use those buttons to be honest.

 

It seems like the keyboard and touchpad are the problem. Have you tried an external keyboard? Does that work fine?

 

DDDenniZZZ and Luis Porras many thanks for your suggestions & replies.
External usb keyboard works fine. Does this proove, that my keyboard is faulty?
Or there still may be a conflict between original keyboard & motherboard (bad contact in connector of motherboard for keyboard cable) and new internal keyboard will not solve my problem?

 

Either internal keyboard faulty or connection, try disconnecting and cleaning connectors a few times, if it doesnt work just get a new keyboard. I think they are around 50 EURO from what I have seen before.

 

Nothing helped. So, I just ordered a replacement keyboard from eBay. Cost me 20$ + 10$ for shipping. Now it's time for wait (30 to 45 days for delivery) & pray, that the problem is in fact my keyboard and not smth. else.

 

Keyboard delivered & installed. However, I have ordered the keyboard for Alienware M17X R3 (part number PK130FJ1A00, Model NSK-D8D01), but the ebay seller sent me the keyboard for M17X R4 (part number PK130MK1A01, Model NSK-D8F1D).
These 2 keyboards are not 100% compatible & R4 keyboard required keys re-mapping to work properly. Otherwise pressing "w" resulted in "a", pressing "-" resulted in "s" (and vice versa), 'grey' 2 = "w", Shift+'grey' 2 = "W", pressing "a" resulted in nothing, "d" resulted in "2", Shift+s = "_", Shift+d = nothing.
Nevertheless, now everything is OK.
Thanks once again, DDDenniZZZ and Alienware-L_Porras !!!

 

Interesting, how did you remap the keys ??

 

1. Downloaded & installed programm named KeyTweak v.2.3.0.
2. Selected 'Teach Mode' -> 'Half Teach Mode'.
3. Pressed 'Scan a Single Key' button.
4. Pressed the wrongly mapped keyboard key, chosen the destination key from drop-down box and pressed 'Remap' button. Remapping appeared in 'Pending Changes' window in the right bottom field of the programm.
5. Hit 'Apply' button.
6. Repeated steps 2 to 5 for all initially wrongly mapped keys (5 keys in total).
7. Reboot.
Voila !

Experienced users can also do direct remapping from the main programs window.