Eee pc - 1005ha keyboard/touchpad issue

[merk66]

I am having a rather unique issue with my netbook. The keyboard functions fine in every way, except that the "7" key will not work. Not as "7" or "&". There are two more weird things. One is that occasionally "7" will repeat itself without being pressed until I press another key. The second is that sometimes I cannot click by tapping the touchpad. All of this started spontaneously last night. The netbook had not been used in about 3 weeks. When it was used last, everything was fine. I was on vacation when I used it last and we drove about 6 hours with it inside of a backpack in the back seat of our truck. We made one stop for about an hour, but I don't think it got too hot in the vehicle for it.

Things I have tried to remedy the issue. I installed a secondary OS (Joli). The same behavior was observed. I reinstalled ATK and Touchpad drivers (at the request of ASUS). I removed the keyboard, unplugged it, and blew compressed air in the connector. I reassembled the machine and still have the same problem.

I have not tried flashing the BIOS yet.

I think that there is a hardware issue.

It's running XP btw, I don't think it matters though.

 

[ebenish]

I am having a rather unique issue with my netbook. The keyboard functions fine in every way, except that the "7" key will not work. Not as "7" or "&". There are two more weird things. One is that occasionally "7" will repeat itself without being pressed until I press another key. The second is that sometimes I cannot click by tapping the touchpad. All of this started spontaneously last night. The netbook had not been used in about 3 weeks. When it was used last, everything was fine. I was on vacation when I used it last and we drove about 6 hours with it inside of a backpack in the back seat of our truck. We made one stop for about an hour, but I don't think it got too hot in the vehicle for it.

Things I have tried to remedy the issue. I installed a secondary OS (Joli). The same behavior was observed. I reinstalled ATK and Touchpad drivers (at the request of ASUS). I removed the keyboard, unplugged it, and blew compressed air in the connector. I reassembled the machine and still have the same problem.

I have not tried flashing the BIOS yet.

I think that there is a hardware issue.

It's running XP btw, I don't think it matters though.

Hey Mark,

Having the same issue with different keys.
Its definitely n hardware problem widely reported over the net.
ASUS sucks!

 

[merk66]

Hey Mark,

Having the same issue with different keys.
Its definitely n hardware problem widely reported over the net.
ASUS sucks!

Thanks for the reply. I will agree completely. ASUS sucks! I should have learned my lesson when I bricked two different motherboards trying to flash their BIOS. One was an old P4-P800 and the other was an M2N-SLI. Now I have a worthless eee-PC to stack on top of them and I didn't even do anything mildly risky to this one. At least with the two motherboards that bricked, I felt like I was taking a risk.

 

[ronmoritz]

I am having the same problem on a 1005HA that's been in operation for almost 2 years now. A few weeks ago, probably over the summer sometime, the "9" key stopped working and started to repeat itself randomly numerous times until either another key or the <esc> key was hit. No problems with external USB keyboard.

Can't find any useful insight on the 'net. One guy suggested that his problem went away when he turned off the audio / sound card in the bios. I tried but that didn't help.

I've flashed the bios (I'm running current version 1601) and all my drivers are up to date (Windows 7 Ultimate). I've removed and reinstalled the keyboard.

I'm throwing my arms up in the air drawing a complete blank here. The issue doesn't make any sense at all. Some guys are saying it is a software problem. However, I don't think that's true since I have a second ASUS 1005HA running the exact same configuration (both were bought at the same time) and that machine is, so far, doing alright.

Ugh, is all I can say.

I agree - this is my last dealing with ASUS.

 

[merk66]

Best answer selected by merk66.

 

[merk66]

I agree - this is my last dealing with ASUS.

It's a shame that we can't make a difference to ASUS. Unfortunately they will only continue to turn out a bunch of shoddy products. At least someone may stumble upon this thread and have it influence their purchase decision. It's such a weird problem, I have to believe that there is a chip on the mobo that is going bad. Maybe there is a heat issue with the 1005HA that causes it. I know that the vent on the side of the netbook is always blowing pretty hot air out. Plus the intake vents are located on the bottom and are easily blocked if holding it on your lap. Thing is, I always would place the netbook on top of a book or something solid to make sure the holes weren't covered up. I can guarantee that this is no software issue since I installed a completely different OS. I didn't try flashing the bios though. Since you flashed yours, we know that's not the problem either. We both removed and reinstalled the keyboard.

 

[blueking]

My EEE 1005HA just started to have the exact same problem (with the key '4') after not in use for a few months. I also took the keyboard out and reseated the ribbon cable, nothing changed. Also, the touchpad stopped responding to tap, I can still move the cursor with it.

Has anyone replaced the keyboard and fixed the problem? If so, did it fix the touchpad tap problem?

Any lawyers here? Is there a class action suit against ASUS since this apparently a wide spread defect in their products?

 

[ronmoritz]

If you find a lawyer, sign me up. I'll join the class action. Not because it will make me any money (the lawyers get all the good cash) but because it will be a FU to ASUS.

In the meantime I stuck an external keyboard on the Asus and I'm able to make it work. Not so good as a netbook any more since it's hard to be a netbook when you have to lug around a full size keyboard with you ...

 

[merk66]

blueking, cut your losses and don't even think about changing the keyboard. I have read that the keyboard is not the problem, it is the onboard chip for the keyboard and touchpad. What a piece of !

 

[blueking]

Darn, that's a bummer! Thanks for letting me know because I was looking into buying a new keyboard. This makes sense because the touchpad is not connected to the keyboard.

Someone please suit them!

 

[merk66]

lol, over the weekend I went on a little vacation. Last night my eee pc worked just fine. It even worked right this morning too. Tonight, I was planning to write to you guys, telling you about how it mysteriously fixed itself. But tonight it is back to the seven not working and touchpad not clicking. Not sure what to make of it. My ACPI power management is giving an error on startup now too. I can't remember if this is of my own doing or something new. I tried uninstalling a few things when I first had the issue, so it may be left over from my trial and error. Regardless, it was very strange to have the ability to type the number 7 for 24 hours.

 

[lawlockman]

The "4" key and the "l" keys do not work on my 1005ha. I t started with the 4 and I used the onscreen keyboard to work around it but now the "l" key won't work. I have had a battery problem and ASUS support wasn't that helpful. I replaced the battery and everything was working OK. The computer is only 18 mo old and is used thee or four times a year on trips. No more ASUS products for me.

 

[photokingh]

Here an other person with the same issues as reported.
My ASUS 1005HA Black is also +/- 2 years old. Always treated gentle, not much used/not heavy used, but occasional usage I would say.
Its clean, never fell, no tweaks, etc etc

Without any root cause, it started to beep, and after some time I found out it was because its trying to type automatically a key. In my case its the `-sign that it types in long strings , eg like this: `````````````````
This can happen while typing, while surfing and not typing or even after a random time without touching keyboard or trackpad at all!

When this happens, on a screen without a cursor, the keyboard starts to beep like crazy. (the same beep when you would hold a key at a moment you do not have a cursus/editable field in your screen)

Also the question mark sign is not working anymore, while on that same key without shift the / or with ALT the + keys are working fine.

Other keys with shift work fine.

So indeed, it seems there is not an issue with SW, Drivers, Keyboard, but something on in the system/board itself that is starting to mallfunction. (I put my ASUS back to factory mode, updated drivers, installed firmware, updated bios, nothing helped)

I already wanted to sell my ASUS and buy something new, to please some one else and to not waste a good product etc... but with this issue I can not use nor sell the ASUS anymore... hundreds of EURO down the drain. Faulty product in my view and even after the normal warranty I think they should repair under warranty, as you may expect a product like this for a lot of money (I think 500Euro orso), needs to opperate normal still after 2 years.