A fix for conjoined Dell laptop keys
(I’ve been exclusively making withdrawals from the First Lazyweb Bank of late, so here’s a deposit.)
About a week ago I opened up E’s mom’s laptop (a Dell Inspiron 2200) and began to enter a URL. Instead of www, it came out weweew. I soon found that a number of keys had all somehow become tied to their neighbors; pressing one would cause key events for both to be posted to the system, and both letters would appear. Trying to type w s x e d c might result in we sd xc ew ds cx, things like that. (Yes, I’m being extra-verbose here to try to help Google out.)
The keyboard was very clean; these keys were not physically stuck together, but rather electrically bound. Using the built-in hardware diagnostics (very handy; hold down fn while booting), I identified the following conjoined pairs of keys: 2 and 3; w and e; s and d; x and c; F1 and F2; and CAPS LOCK and F3.
I was afraid that a new keyboard would be required (which, fortunately, you can buy from Dell), but there was an easier fix. Some casting about the Dell support forums revealed that the keyboard connector ribbon has a predilection for coming loose underneath the keyboard, and that re-seating it can fix problems like these. Armed with Dell’s keyboard removal instructions, I pulled out the thin little ribbon, dusted it off, slid it carefully back in, and put the system back together.
And it now types www again.
15 responses
Thanks for the help.
comment posted at 3:55 pm on 06 Dec 2006
Awesome. I followed your instructions and got my dell notebook keyboard working again. In my case qw, as, zx, and 12 were stuck together.
comment posted at 8:38 am on 24 Apr 2007
My Dell Inspiron 6000 is suddenly giving me problems. The nine number does not type or just types the number non stop. The caps lock has come out and I have no idea how to fix it. Please help me.
comment posted at 11:26 pm on 24 Jul 2007
Rek, I guess you could try re-seating the connector ribbon. If that doesn’t work, you might have a short-circuited trace on the keyboard (dripped some coffee in there, perhaps?), which you can try to clean (Google is your friend here).
comment posted at 9:03 pm on 25 Jul 2007
Thanks so very much for this post and the link to remedy the conjoined dell laptop keys. You saved me!!!
comment posted at 7:12 pm on 28 Aug 2007
Thanks for this from Estonia! Got a brand new Dell Vostro 1000 and in the weekend, same problem. Found instructions for keyboard removal from Dell website, 10 minutes of dismantling, reconnecting the ribbon – and it works again! Must be one of the main weaknesses of Dell laptops. All the best!
comment posted at 1:46 pm on 26 Oct 2007
Thanks so much for the info, I had similar keyboard issues where unrelated keys were conjoined with numbers/letters. Did exactly what you did an voila… works perfectly. Thanks so much, you saved me hours of anguish !!!
comment posted at 1:50 pm on 01 Jun 2008
Thanks – good job on the google phrases – this page was easy to find and the solution was a simple procedure – save the laptop from a trip to Dell!
comment posted at 12:04 am on 13 Jun 2008
Thank you very much for posting this and providing Google-friendly phrases. My laptop is fixed! :)
comment posted at 8:18 pm on 11 Aug 2008
Hi, certain keys on my inspiron 630m laptom keyboard somehow got stuck together, here is the example when i type the middle row starting from “a” to “;”
az sx dc fv g h jm k, l. ;\ noticed that how the g and h seems to work fine but a,s,d,f,j,k, l and ; is not
the same thing happen if i am to type z, x ect….
az sx dc fv b n jm k, l. Also, my enter key is stuck with \
I’ve followed the instructions above and it still stuck.
I’ve also tried to replace a new keyboard and the problem still exist.
Please help
thanks
comment posted at 2:39 am on 18 Aug 2008
Thanks! I was amazed that I was able to find someone else with this problem, let alone the solution! Your instrucitons worked great! Thanks again!
comment posted at 8:02 pm on 14 Nov 2008
I replaced my keyboard (at Dell’s request) and it did not fix my problem. My keyboard keys still do not work properly. Suggestions? I am using a Dell Inspiron 1501
comment posted at 6:42 pm on 10 Mar 2009
Wow Thanks A LOT!!! i have the same problem and it really works! thanks again^___^
comment posted at 7:39 pm on 31 Mar 2009
I have the same kind of problems with my keyboard, but I’m on a desktop computer so does anyone know if this solution would work on my keyboard too? And if not, is there any other solutions?
comment posted at 4:48 am on 18 Aug 2009
My b,n,spacebar,?,down, left,right arrow keys do not work. I ran diagnostics, replaced keyboard(no keys worked when I did that). reconnected old keybboard and still have problems with aforementioned keys not working. On screen keyboard is a pain to use. Any ideas??
comment posted at 10:07 am on 12 Sep 2009