Asus q301L keyboard problem, many keys not working at all!

[kenfrank]

My son brought home his Asus Q301L vivobook/laptop (it's got the touchscreen) from college, complaining it was broke... A whole bunch of the keys on the built-in keyboard do not work (in either Windows 8.1 OR Linux): The SHIFT, TAB, CTRL, 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, -, =, Q, E, P, ], \, Z, C, and /
keys seem to be the ones in question. Also the down-arrow cursor key.

The onscreen touch keyboard is fine in windows, and hooking up an external usb keyboard works fine, but neither is a great option for a student who wants to be able to take notes on it in class.
I'm certain it's not a windows issue, since booting into Linux has the same keys not doing anything. How hard is it to replace these keyboards?

 

[NerdyComputerGuy]

When did you buy the laptop and where did you buy it from?

Is it issued by the college?

 

[kenfrank]

It's not under warranty -- purchased at a Best Buy in Minnesota in fall of 2013.

 

[speedymcrunfast]

I'm actually typing this on the same model laptop. About 6 months ago I had a bunch of keys stop working and it turned out I had hit numlock on an external USB keyboard I had it plugged into. When I moved the laptop and wasn't using the USB keyboard the native keyboard lost a bunch of key functionality. I plugged the keyboard back in and hit num lock again and it started working fine.