Seems I´ve run into some problems with my laptop (keyboard) as of late.
I´m running Linux Lite 6.4 on this laptop (Medion Akloya E6222). It´s been running fine until now.
A few days ago our local electricity provider had to cut off power for a limited amount of time, so I disconnected the laptop from the mains beforehand.
But it was still on battery of course.
2 days later I reconnected it to mains again and the laptop began charging. Nothing unusual about that.
In the meantime it´s fully charged but some keys don´t work anymore.
E.g.: c, n, o, q, 1, 9.
There are also some problems with the arrow keys.
So I updated the system and rebooted but the fault remains.
Connecting an external keyboard (via barrier keyboard and mouse sharing application) results in getting the keys to work again. But they don´t work with the laptop´s built-in keyboard.
Unfortunately I cannot boot into a live system, as I´m unable to select the relevant USB drive in the boot menu. Yes, the arrow keys don´t work here either.
Sad state of affairs, it seems.
Any ideas why all of a sudden this fault materialized
Many thanks in advance and many greetings from Rosika
Dont use those keys … ha ha ha
Use the on board keyboard on the screen.
Funny thing is i have had two similar during the last week, no electricity problems just stopped working, so plugged in external keyboard and it works fine.
One was our association tresorier so I just said round to the nearest whole number so pay 20 euros instead of 19,99 … he would not do that.
The laptop is well over 10 years old. And I use it rather sparingly as I have a Lenovo PC running as my main system (also with Linux Lite on it).
So either investing in an external KB or using it in conjunction with my main PC (barrier) seems to be the most cost-effective “solution” (or rather: workaround), I guess.
The difficulty with external keyboards on laptops is
Space taken extra on the desk
Taking 2 on the road
The wire unless you use bluetooth
One of my clients with the faulty keyboard called me back and said every time i use it i get a load of xxxxxxxx on the screen, i discovered she put the new external on top of the old internal and the weight was causing the xxxxx on the screen, users, dont you just love them…
That sounds very much like your keyboard reached end of life
In such case I’d go for hunting a new keyboard.
The forests to hunt in in the order I’d visit excluding hardverapro.hu, which is my very first attempt, but specifically hungarian site:
Ebay (search for “keyboard” + your laptop model name)
Some results:
You can search on Google/Duckduck go as well…
You could search (I’d do) for a same/very similar model, but defunct laptop, with a broken motherboard. Having such a defunct device may work as a donor for years for you, for example, you can disassemble it, and get the good fringes from it whenever your muc appreciated laptops fringes break.
No idea, I don’t think it’s related to the power-down. Maybe some moving around…
What you still can try is to partially disassemble the laptop to be able to check the ribbon cables, where the keyboard connects. Are the cables intact?
Only thing I can suggest is check the ribbon cable inside the chassis isn’t seated properly… or reseat it and try - i.e. disconnect it from the laptop motherboard and reconnect it.
It’s not easy… The connectors on these things are a bit “fiddly”…
Depending on the laptop it could be near impossible. I had issues with a Dell laptop going “haywire” (out of control - i.e. not reacting - or wildly typing bizarre characters seemingly at random and swiping the cursor). Powering it off for a while seemed to fix it. I think it was a heat issue.
I actually got a replacement unit off ebay - but - it’s a MASSIVE tasks to replace it on this model of Dell Latitude… on that laptop it’s basically replacing the whole palm rest area, keyboard, and touchpad…
I haven’t looked under the keyboard on my current Lenovo Thinkpad - but - previous ones I’ve used - it’s simple as sliding 2 tiny latch thingies on the top and the keyboard lifts out (that’s how to get to the RAM SODIMMs on that model of Thinkpad, W500 I think).
I just googled your laptop and it came up with an Amazon link :
By the looks of it - it’s a simple flat ribbon cable - so - I’d try disconnecting it and re-seating it and see if that fixes the issue - if not - then you might have to buy another.
100% this sounds like a physical hardware issue and not software.
I had a Lenovo X1 Carbon 7th Gen that developed keyboard problems. A replacement keyboard was $50 US so I decided to give it a try. It required removal of 88 tiny tiny tiny screws and 10 connectors. As Dan said, a major undertaking. To my amazement I succeeded and had no missing screws or screws left over. I thought I was a super-star.
It turned out that the keyboard was not the problem, nor was it the cable—it was the motherboard, and it did not make financial sense to replace ($550) the MB in order to extend the life of an old device. Cost estimates from an accredited Lenovo repair center were even higher than that.
If a new keyboard or cable fixes the issue then, congratulations, you’ve done it. But if it’s not really inexpensive to repair then it’s time to recycle it.
Hi Rosika,
I’m of the same opinion that the keyboard is faulty and needs to be replaced. However, I’ve had problems with the keys locking up (being pressed all the time) and causing some keys to fail.
My suggestion is to use a program where you can test key by key and press several times on the keys that are going to work, one by one, to see if they release. I don’t know if you’ve tried it, but above all test the ESC key, the F, DEL, INS, HOME, END keys, i.e. all the keys that don’t produce characters.
Good luck
Yep, I would suggest that too. Our home laptop ( Some ASUS LAPTOP from 2016) also had similar problems. But the reconnecting of the ribbon cable solved the problem.
But getting a replacement leyboard for the machine and then replacing the old one by it seems to be overly complicated for me.
I´m not much of a hardware person, I fear.
Still: In just looked up the link to the ebay site you kindly provided. The prices seem to be pretty resonable though.
Yes, in theory that sounds great, László.
Knowing that you are a dedicated hardware person this bill would surely fit perfectly in your case.
With me however…
The only time I look a laptop apart was when my friend Margret wanted to dispose of her old one and so I removed the internal HDD first.
I very much doubt that I would´ve been able to reassemble the whole thing again.
Yes, it sounds improbable.
Even with the mains down, the laptop was still connected to its battery.
That I can eliminate as a reason. I only move the laptop once a month (or even once in two months) to perform the usual updates.
And even then: I move it just a few centimeters.
I certainly didn´t move it now.
So it must have been a sheer coincidence, it seems.
What? Really?
My goodness.
I congratulate you on your success.
So sorry that the replacement didn´t fix the issue after all.
I realize that replacing the motherboard wasn´t worth it, bearing in mind the huge price.
If you rest a external keyboard on a existing laptop keyboard, depending on the position and pressure you get odd characters appear on the screen, and in her case the leg of the external keyboard was on top of the x so each time she typed on new keyboard the x appeared on the screen as well as i had not switched of the internal keyboard, did not think
On replacing laptop keyboards, i have stopped offering that service for a couple of reasons
Its not cost efective, cheaper to plug one in
If i take the laptop apart to get to the keyboard on some it involves taking mother board our, disconnecting screens, wifi card, etc
The ribon cable on new keyboards are so fragile cannot always set them correctly
The cost of an internal keyboard and fitting against an external is not cost efective especially with technician time and effort.
Hi Rosika,
It is most likely due to inactivity leading to corroding contacts
If it was one key, you could try spraying some WD40 under the key and exercising it.
That worked for me once. Has to be mechanical keys.
Probably would not help with multiple keys affected, as it is likely to be ribbon cable contacts. No harm trying.
Regards
Neville
Another thought… did you try reinstalling keyboard drivers?
I’ve investigated replacing the touchbar on my 2020 (bought 2021) MacBook Pro M1 - it’s a VAST undertaking - hours of work and not only screws but a heatgun is needed - I don’t regret getting an M1 MacBook - I love having UNIX running on a 64 bit RISC processor - but I could have saved myself $300 and this PITA by getting a MacBook Air M1 (and only sacrificing a single core).
The worst thing about not having the TouchBar working - it’s ALSO the F1 to F12 keys and volume control!
HI Rosika,
one of the ways you can test the keyboard is with xev.
It’s very simple to use: you run xev in a terminal, it opens a window, but when you press the keys the information appears in the terminal, for example when I press F1 (it always appears twice, because once is when you press the key and the other time is when you release the key):
Neville,
With all due respect, and you are someone I admire greatly, and it pains me to say what I write next, Rosika should not use the usual WD40 on her laptop, but a dry contact cleaner (WD has one, but there are lots of brands).
If it was just one key, it would make sense for me to try to clean the key contacts, but there are several keys that don’t work, which could be the matrix, the flat cable that connects to the motherboard that many have mentioned, but personally, I also question whether it could also be a stuck key that is blocking the others and, as you rightly said, reinstalling the keyboard drivers.
The first tests I would carry out to find the fault would be: test all the keys, pressing each key several times to release any contact that may have been made, change the keyboard to US and test all the keys again (in my opinion, the US keyboard always works, even if the keys have been changed).
Rosika, to give you an idea of what we’re talking about, I’ve removed a key from my keyboard, so you can see what a key looks like:
ESC key without the button
Mechanical parts that make up the button: button, button holder and conical membrane (which is glued to the keyboard membrane) that acts as a spring to push the button upwards
switch
(there are several models of keys and switches)
The image below is just an example of a flexible membrane keyboard with the conical membranes (blue) glued to the switch locations. In the top left corner is the ribbon cable, which I call the flat cable:
My theory is that one of these switches may be pressed or the button itself may be pressed and that may block the operation of some switches - the switches are connected in a matrix: you have 24 tracks on the flat cable, but you have more than 68 switches in this example (I don’t want to go into technical details on this subject).
The opinion that the flat cable is in bad contact is an excellent one, because it does the same thing: if one of the 24 lines is in bad contact, you lose several switches straight away, and often you just have to remove and reconnect the flat cable, and you’re up and running.
Ah, I see. Thanks for the detailed explanation, Paul.
Oh course, placing an external keyboard on top of the the built-in one doesn´t seem to be a good idea. Triggering some keys of the internal one is bound to happen that way.
Well, in theory: yes, that might be possible. But if several keys are affected - all of a sudden and from one day to the next - that would be quite coincidental.
Perhaps it´s rather a ribon cable, like Paul suggested.
No, I didn´t.
To be frank, I´m quite at a loss here. No idea how to tackle the task.
I need to know how to find out more about keyboard drivers first.
Thanks for recommending a dry contact cleaner.
But like you suggested:
It´s probably that. Would make sense.
Of course, I´ll try that first.
Oh dear. Jorge, you shouldn´t have.
Although it´s a great help to see some visual representation of what it looks like, I still hope you can get it safely back.
I see. That makes sense.
O.K., I´ll see what I can do. Thanks so much for your help, Jorge.
Well, in the meantime I have ordered an external keyboard.
Actually I ordered it yesterday.
It´s a seenda model with those measurements: 29,2x12,4x0,6 cm.
I comes with a usb receiver and a mouse, so it´s a wireless model.
The price is 23.99 €.
Even if I could get the laptop´s KB to work again, it might not be a bad idea to have a spare KB/mouse set.
Many thanks to you all and many greetings from Rosika
Hi Rosika,
Obviously a reboot will refresh the ram copy of keyboard drivers
but if the disk copy is corrupt no
easiest way to test… boot another linux from a usb drive. I expect it will still have the KB problem. If so software is not the issue.
Regards
Neville
