[madge85]

Within the last week my Sony Viao laptop keyboard started acting up. The dash key, delete key, home key, no. six key, and a few others just don't work anymore. More and more are not working.

I use it everyday, several years old. I do eat food over it occasionally. Tried cleaning under the keys. Didn't fix.

A virus (I had a recent virus attack so bad had to reformat hard drive; but keyboard worked immediately afterward).

Any guidance greatly appreciated. I'm afraid I'll soon lose all keyboard functioning and will be up the creek. I don't have a lot of money, can't just buy a new computer.

Sony Viao laptop
PIII, 25six ram
11 gig hard drive
Windows 2000 pro final service pak rollup

[Cookiegal]

It would be good to try compressed air first, then if that doesn't work, we can check for spyware as the cause.

Please do this. Click here to download HijackThis.

Close all open windows and open HijackThis. Click “Scan”. When the scan is finished, the scan button will change to “Save Log”. Click on “Save Log” and then save it to Notepad. Click on “Edit” – “Select all” – “copy” and then “paste” into the thread.

DO NOT FIX ANYTHING YET, most items that appear in the log are harmless or even needed.

[madge85]

Okay, I'll try the air. But I have to go buy some first. I'll do the hijack and be back.

Thank you Cookie! (thumbs up)

[madge85]

Here's my hijack:

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 12:46:35 PM, on 7/24/2005

[Cookiegal]

I don't see anything malicious in the log but I do see that you have both Trend Micro's AntiSpyware and Norton. This is not a good idea as they will conflict with each other and can cause problems.

Let me know if the air cleaning helps.

[madge85]

Ok. Thanks for tip. I'll let you know about the air. Have a good day.

[Ciberblade]

For 'deep' cleaning....it takes a bit.

soak your keyboard in warm bath water for about an hour....then tie it's cord to the shower head. It should be hanging so that all the water pours out from one side. After about an hour or so...hit it with some compressed air to get anything out from under the keys...let it sit some more. You want to be certain that there is no moisture left in there before plugging it back in. (I've known some to use a hair-drier to speed up the process).

[madge85]

Are you crazy?! Ha! Really, that's pretty funny. So, I think I'll be logging off for now. Thanks.

[madge85]

Just FYI: the air cleaning didn't work and the same keys are not working. I didn't try the "deep cleaning" method....It's a laptop keyboard, so I would have to take the keys out which I don't know how to do. Plus, I'm not sure that giving a keyboard a shower and hanging it on the line to dry is in the Betty Crocker list of approved cleaning methods. Then again, it may very well be. Anyway, that's the whole story.

[Cookiegal]

Do you know for a fact that you spilled something on it? If not, let's run some scans and eliminate spyware as the cause. Many infections don't show up in a HijackThis log.

I know you can take the keys off keyboards and wash them out but I wouldn't go so far as to soak it. I've read that it's not recommended to remove the keys from laptops but can't remember the reason. Perhaps they are more delicate. Laptop keyboards can be replaced as well.

As you deleted your HijackThis log, please remind me what OS you are running before we proceed.

[buckfan1]

I had this happen to a laptop and we had to replace the keyboard they are about 50 dollars

[Deathblow]

Is it still under warranty? If so, I'd suggest taking it to a warranty repair center.

[DragonAX]

Ok well I just purchased a 2nd hand TwinHead laptop with a broken harddrive and faulty keyboard. To fix the keyboard I pulled all of the keys off (you might wanna be carefull here, take one off, study it, and figure out how to put it back on befor taking them all off ) Then I carefully removed the rubber layer (your board might be different so I'm not sure if it will have the same layers as mine... the important thing is to get to the plastic circuit board unerneath.) It took me a while to spot the fault on mine... it seems that some of the conductor on the bottom layer had been corroded by something (coffee?) The corrosion was only visible from one side and I had to look very carefully to notice the slight discolouration in the tracks.
Once I had done a few continuity checks with the multimeter (testing between the the connector and pads and between pads and other pads on the same wire) I was able to confirm that this was where the fault was...

I basically just scrapped away small sections of insulation (VERY CAREFULLY) on each end of the fault ( use a multimeter to test that there is exposed conductive material.)
Then I drew a line beween the two sections with conductive pen, waited 20 mins, then tested if the pads were working properly.

It took me a couple of tries with the conductive pen and there were two faulty tracks next two each other wich meant that I had to scratch a line between them afterwards with a screwdriver to make sure they weren't connected together.

I'm just about to put the keyboard back in so I'll let you know how it goes...


I wouldn't sugguest doing this if you want to keep your warranty

[DragonAX]

Yeap! Works perfectly!