Hello TZ IT gurus. The keyboards on my daughter’s laptop has stopped working. No idea why. It’s a Dell Inspiron that’s a couple of years old. I’ve tried updating the keyboard drivers, deleting the keyboard drivers, swearing at the laptop - none of which has worked!
Any ideas?
Do the status lights work if cap or num locks are pressed?Originally Posted by Kirk280
Anything spilt on the KB? If no keys work it is worth taking the KB out to make sure the ribbon cable is properly attached, do any keys work on first boot up before the os loads?
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Last edited by Arcam; 22nd November 2020 at 13:56.
Nothing spilt on it (but you never know...) but no keys are working. I think taking it apart is the next step. Off to kick the ball about first though!
When you first power on the laptop from shutdown, try pressing F2 to see if you can get into the BIOS. If you can it shows that the keyboard (or a part of it) is working and that it's the Windows drivers that are at fault.
Does the trackpad mouse work or are you using an external USB mouse?
If you lived local to me I'd be happy to look at it / fit you a new keyboard but I see from your profile that you're in the Manchester area.
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You could probably connect a external keyboard by USB as a stop gap.
Cheers..
Jase
That would be my first test, to see if perhaps the inbuilt keyboard had simply been disconnected in its ribbon connector to the MB
A usb keyboard works fine, so I decided to take the back off.
The first puzzle is...the hard drive is missing! I presume it has a solid state drive.
It came with a 12m warranty. Apparently the wife bought it 21/11/2019. Doh!
Last edited by Kirk280; 22nd November 2020 at 21:46.
Metal thing to the right of the battery ;-)
Ta. Smaller than I expected (!). Where is the keyboard ribbon?
You might have to revert to YouTube for a step by step on changing a keyboard to find out what is where.
It’s a Dell 15 3000 Inspiron. Most youtube videos remove the keyboard from the front, but the keyboard on this one seems to be behind a solid case? Aaaarrgh where is the whisky??
Ha ha I’ve watched that a few times now. Turns out it is an Inspiron 3583, Curry’s put the wrong info on the receipt!
Here is the Dell how to remove the keyboard guide. What a ball-ache!
https://www.dell.com/support/content.../6169727729001
See www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/product/inspiron-15-3583-laptop/docs for the service manual (pdf link). On page 70 is a picture showing the position of the keyboard cable connector. My apologies of you've already found it, but seeing that it's OK might be on your list of things to check and maybe you don't have to strip everything down to access the connector.
Thanks that is useful, as it happens I guessed it was the keyboard connector. I’ve disconnected / reconnected but no change.
I’m going to ring Curry’s tomorrow to see what the status is re: warranty / lockdown....perhaps as they have been closed they might extend the warranty?
Expect a “great customer service / never buying from them again” update in due course!
I had a problem with my MacBook Pro touchpad, which stopped responding.
Tried the bios booting approach,drivers etc but it came down to the flat ribbon cable that connected to the touchpad was sensitive to dirt and grit which gets into the innards. This would then cut connections in the ribbon
A £10 part and a video on YouTube sorted it in less than an hour.
Is there a similar cable connecting the keyboard that is exposed and potentially exposed to damage?
Using your USB keyboard I would first:
Ensure all DELL driver updates inc BIOS have been performed on the laptop https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk?app=drivers
Ensure all Windows updates have been processed
If that didnt work I would then try trawling google for someone with the same problem
If you fancied a punt they have keyboards on eBay for £20 but replacement does look to be a bit of a ball ache.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-D...-/352572675316
Thanks I’ve now updated the drivers. Still no keyboard....
Curry’s / PC World support line were actually quite helpful. The laptop is being picked up on Thursday....let’s see it they repair it under warranty as an act of good faith (they’ll probably see I’ve had the back off and that will be it!)
He also advised a full clean-slate delete and start again...still no keyboard!
I'd be interested to see what the problem was, I'd expect it's the keyboard itself.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
Best clear your browsing history before they pick it up..................
I've had a couple of these fail on me on these models
on one I removed the ribbon connector - cleaned the contacts and put it back and it worked again (its the blue connector top left of the battery in your photo)
on another on the odd key needed to be pressed really hard to work but to replace the keyboard on these you need to remove the whole motherboard and the fans and take the whole thing apart
basically could not be bothered and got a new laptop instead
but they do sell chassis with keyboard integrated in them on ebay and the like which does make life a bit easier
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