Some keys on laptop keyboard are not working (even after keyboard replace)

[Elioth]

Hello , I have a inspiron 14r which a few days ago had operating problems in two keyboard keys, the del and down arrow keys. I thought at first to be a hardware problem, so I bought a new keyboard and replaced the old keyboard, but the problem remains, does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

Oh, and i also tested the keys on the BIOS, they also did not work there, wich sucks since i cant navigate trough the possible boot options nor the bios menu itself without a working down arrow key

 

[hang-the-9]

If new keyboard did not fix it, motherboard issue, although it's odd that it's such a small amount of keys. See if you can remap those keys to another key that is not used http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/map-any-key-to-any-key-on-windows-xp-vista/

Make sure you make a backup of your registry first before changing settings using the regedit command, click on the top Computer part and then go to File > Export and save the .reg file. If anything gets messed up, import that .reg file back in by double-clicking it.

 

[Elioth]

If new keyboard did not fix it, motherboard issue, although it's odd that it's such a small amount of keys. See if you can remap those keys to another key that is not used http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/map-any-key-to-any-key-on-windows-xp-vista/

Make sure you make a backup of your registry first before changing settings using the regedit command, click on the top Computer part and then go to File > Export and save the .reg file. If anything gets messed up, import that .reg file back in by double-clicking it.

Hmm, i did blow some compressed air into the mobo a few days ago to remove dust, but noticed at some point that a bit of humidity was going out together with the compressed air, but i didnt bother at first since it was such a small amount, do you believe that small amount of humidity might have fried one or two mobo circuits and its now beyond repair, or should i disassemble the laptop again and try to clean the keyboard circuits with an electronic contact cleaner?

Oh, and thanks for the remapping hint, i think i'll do it using my naga, since it allows binding keyboard keys into macros, wich i can bind to one of the mouse buttons

 

[hang-the-9]

If new keyboard did not fix it, motherboard issue, although it's odd that it's such a small amount of keys. See if you can remap those keys to another key that is not used http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/map-any-key-to-any-key-on-windows-xp-vista/

Make sure you make a backup of your registry first before changing settings using the regedit command, click on the top Computer part and then go to File > Export and save the .reg file. If anything gets messed up, import that .reg file back in by double-clicking it.

Hmm, i did blow some compressed air into the mobo a few days ago to remove dust, but noticed at some point that a bit of humidity was going out together with the compressed air, but i didnt bother at first since it was such a small amount, do you believe that small amount of humidity might have fried one or two mobo circuits and its now beyond repair, or should i disassemble the laptop again and try to clean the keyboard circuits with an electronic contact cleaner?

Oh, and thanks for the remapping hint, i think i'll do it using my naga, since it allows binding keyboard keys into macros, wich i can bind to one of the mouse buttons

If you know how to use the cleaner, it can't hurt. Just be careful reseating the connections, those laptop connectors are very delicate in most systems. You can also check things with an external keyboard, I have seen a few times where keys stopped working in Windows and it was not a hardware issue. Very few times though, probably a couple in 20 years.