unresponsive laptop keyboard keys - software solutions?!

[RJVB]

I have an "ancient" Acer Aspire One 722 that still works perfectly fine as a printer server and an audio content server/streamer.

Recently several keys of the internal keyboard stopped responding though. Googling for solutions I was surprised to see things like

• remove all power, hold down the powerbutton for 60s
• remove the keyboard driver, reboot so it gets reinstalled

If I got the order right on the 1st thing, that's a very weird (as in, without any power to the system) method of supposedly resetting the BIOS.

Not really feeling like having to remember if and what I changed in the BIOS settings, so I thought I'd ask here if that's really a likely fix for any kind of issue where a bunch of mostly neighbouring keys don't respond any more at all suddenly?

A replacement internal keyboard seems to be less expensive as a decent external one, shouldn't that give a better chance of repairing the issue?

Oh, and please confirm if I need to reorder the same layout or if any other layout will work as you'd expect, like it would with an external keyboard?

Thanks!

 

[Ardax]

so I thought I'd ask here if that's really a likely fix for any kind of issue where a bunch of mostly neighbouring keys don't respond any more at all suddenly?

Strikes me as unlikely to actually work. I don't know where some of this advice comes from.

Considering you say this is a print/audio server: How often do you actually need to use the keyboard? It should be "not a whole fucking lot" between rarely needing to touch it and using remote access when possible. If that's the case, then I'd just buy the cheapest thing I could get my hands on (if I didn't already have a spare keyboard around) and hook it up and be done with it.

If you're really interested in replacing the keyboard, you should be able to get away with any compatible keyboard regardless of layout.

 

[R4360]

Yeah, I'd say you need a new keyboard. But if it's acting as a server, can't you just remote into it and not bother?

 

[Andrewcw]

Yep new keyboard. But really if you've never really use it that much. Wouldn't an external keyboard be fine? I looked at a youtube video and for your model a keyboard replacement seems dead simple. Compared to my Dell's i had to do. Where i had to replace the complete top shell because it was sent out that way for field repairs.

 

[singebob]

Maybe you could try cleaning it with isopropyl.

Removing the keys is a giant pain tho... however, if you have a spare 1-3 year old child nearby, then I know for a fact that they'll have all the keys off your laptop in no time.

I also have no idea why "ancient" is in inverted commas, that thing is prehistoric.

 

[RJVB]

prehistoric

Erm, no, I have written records from well before I had that thing. And it's younger than that MBP that's still the most powerful computer I own if I don't count my phone

Wiggling the keys and forcing them doesn't have any effect which is why I don't believe in any cleaning solutions. Plus, from what I've seen, the actual contact is always under the "rubber" domelet that provides the key "spring". And they have to be intact because there's no dead feeling to the keys as I've had with multiple keys on an Apple compact external keyboard where I had to glue those domes back in place.

The advice of BIOS reset and driver reinstall comes from several help forums, including an Acer one. Probably boilerplate I suppose (?).

 

[singebob]

oki

 

[steelghost]

Does it work with an external keyboard?

 

[Neill78]

I don't know anything about that model, but if it has a removable battery or you can check the condition of the battery by opening the bottom panel, check for swelling that may be putting pressure on the keyboard. It's kind of unusual to have several keys in the same area go bad at once.

 

[RJVB]

This is

I don't know anything about that model, but if it has a removable battery or you can check the condition of the battery by opening the bottom panel, check for swelling that may be putting pressure on the keyboard. It's kind of unusual to have several keys in the same area go bad at once.

This is a budget non-Apple laptop The battery is a removable bar that fills the space between the screen hinges.

I have to assume that there can have been some kind of corrosion going on, which seems perfectly consistent with areas of malfunction. In fact, the internal keyboard of the much younger Clevo 11" notebook on which I'm typing this failed the same way. Except there I got to notice the evolution of the phenomenon. It works perfectly fine with an external keyboard though.

 

[whoisit]

I have seen the CMOS battery packs swell and cause issues. Of course, those were mostly in Dell laptops.