Question Some keyboard keys behave strange

[Olgierd]

Hi all, I have a small problem with my Dell XPS L502x laptop and need your advice or suggestions. Some keyboard keys of my laptop suddenly (and I mean literary suddenly) stopped working correctly. If I press key “i”, laptop types “io”, if I press “o”, laptop types “poi” or “iop”. If I press “9”, laptop types “09”, pressing the ENTER key gives not the line break, but “the line break and a space” and so on. The majority of keys affected are in the upper right quadrant of a keyboard. The touchpad of my laptop is also affected and can not be used: if you try to move the cursor it starts to scroll through the pages on its own (sometimes at the speed of light , or starts to zoom-in or zoom-out the pages. I’m wondering what’s that and why suddenly the keys went out of order? In advance I can assure you that this issue is not related to input language, input keyboards, NumLocks, Fn keys or keyboard drivers. External keyboard and mouse work fine, as they supposed to work. Does that mean that the native keyboard of my Dell XPS L502x has worn out or maybe the dust and dirt under the keys causes this (although I have no clue how dirt could get under the keyboard as this laptop was always kept clean and was not used in the dusty environments)? The main user of this laptop is my four years kid, when this problem occurred he was typing letters and numbers into PowerPoint slides and besides that watching youtube (also selecting videos to watch).
Would be great if someone who knows the major issues with laptop keyboards would comment on this. Thanks in advance.

 

[velocityg4]

You can try cleaning it. As you say the trackpad is also having issues. I wouldn't expect this to be the problem. Anyway you can lay it on its side then blow around the keys with compressed air (canned air). An air compressor works too as long as it doesn't have moisture issues but you have to be careful as they can possibly blow the keys off.

Used keyboards for that laptop are about $10 on eBay. I'd start there for a replacement. They are pretty easy to replace. You may want a plastic spudger too.To help avoid marking up the surface of the laptop.

The trackpad is tougher to guess at. Some key on the keyboard may always be activated. Causing the erratic behavior. I would remove the internal keyboard. Then test the trackpad. I haven't found the trackpad by itself. I did find a replacement palmrest assembly on Amazon new for $23 plus shipping. Used ones are a little cheaper on eBay (they say refurbished but that is BS). These are more of a pain to replace.

Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Dell XPS 15 L502X Palmrest Touchpad Assembly - HYJ4V - Grade A

As the keyboard and trackpad are both behaving erratically. If the trackpad still has problems with the internal keyboard removed. I would suspect some damage occurred to the laptop. Possibly liquid but who knows. As the keyboard and trackpad use separate connectors. I can't think of any motherboard issue which would cause this nor system setting. Since, as you said, externals work correctly.

 

[Prostar Computer]

Are you aware of whether you or anyone else has ever spilled anything on the laptop?

Your worst case scenario - and it sounds likely here, sorry to say - is hardware failure; either a failing touchpad board and a keyboard with a faulty key matrix (both would need serviced or replaced), or in a more extreme case, an issue at the motherboard. Keyboards and touchpads aren't very expensive, but they're usually also not very easily accessible.

 

[Olgierd]

Thanks for the answers. Regarding the water and liquids. Once I’ve poured a quarter or a fifth part of mineral water on the keyboard (and namely on the upper right corner, were the keys that do not work properly are located), but it was long ago (a year or two ago), I turned off the laptop, removed the battery, cleaned up the computer quickly, made him dry and it worked perfectly up till now. But now I guess, that yes, water can cause a damage, that will come out only after some time, maybe the corrosion of contacts or something similar to that occurred.

 

[Prostar Computer]

Liquid damage is fickle. Sometimes you can get away with it if it doesn't go far/hit anything critical. Since it's been a year+ since the spill, your mineral water probably isn't the cause here, but if you were to dismantle the laptop and find any kind of oxidation or stains alluding to it penetrating components, then it's possible it's just now manifesting.

Fair chance it's just a coincidence that both devices are showing signs of failure, though. I'm betting replacing both will fix your issues if any other troubleshooting doesn't work.

 

[Olgierd]

I’ve opened top cover of the laptop. No dirt with the exception around the corners of the cover and only minor traces of dust were found. No traces of water or oxidation too. Cleaned up everything, although there was not much to clean. Put everything back and turned the computer on. Now majority of keys work as supposed, but the g and h keys are dead, when I’m pressing them nothing happens, but b and n keys give the above letters g and h. Pressing b produces g and pressing n produces h. Pressing space bar sends me to Find and Replace (Go To) option in MS Word. The question mark and slash ?/ key gives the quotation marks “”, while the true quotation mark key is dead, three of the arrow keys are dead, but the left arrows gives not the movements to the left side of the page, but to the upper side of the page. Insert key does not respond also. Touchpad lets to move the cursor, crazy behavior gone, but does not allow to make a selection and the left press-bar is dead.