Keyboard Issues

[tsr2]

I've had a few issues with the left cursor key working intermittently on a Lenovo netbook. I was thinking about having the key replaced, then a few days ago most of the middle row of keys stopped working. Letters asdf didn't work, g and h did, jkl didn't. I think the punctuation on that row worked, but I don't remember for certain. As the issue persisted after a reboot, I assumed that it was a hardware fault, but a few days later all the keys are working again.

Has anyone seen anything like that or have any idea what could cause it?

[Breelander]

... I assumed that it was a hardware fault, but a few days later all the keys are working again.

Has anyone seen anything like that or have any idea what could cause it?

The hardware concerned may well be the ribbon cable that connects the keyboard to the motherboard. It may be loose or dirty.

How do you feel about dismantling it and reseating the connection? Laptop keyboards can be surprisingly easy to remove and replace - and Lenovo even have training videos to tell you how to do it!

Go here... https://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/l ... 20Training ...and find your model.

[twotwo22]

Laptop keyboards are generally inexpensive and easy to replace.

[tsr2]

How do you feel about dismantling it and reseating the connection? Laptop keyboards can be surprisingly easy to remove and replace - and Lenovo even have training videos to tell you how to do it!

Normally I'm not keen on messing about with hardware. but I have changed hard disks and installed network cards before. Reseating a ribbon cable sounds about my level, as long as I can get at it reasonably easily. I will find the appropriate video and see what I can do.

[UncleEbenezer]

FWIW, my laptop has a keyboard that's been misbehaving: either it doesn't register a keypress, or it treats them as held down and repeats the action ad infinitem.

Seems to be weather-related. It was bad in the cold weather, but is much better now as things have warmed up. Hopefully it won't be long before all misbehaviour is gone for the season.

[tsr2]

... I assumed that it was a hardware fault, but a few days later all the keys are working again.

Has anyone seen anything like that or have any idea what could cause it?

The hardware concerned may well be the ribbon cable that connects the keyboard to the motherboard. It may be loose or dirty.

How do you feel about dismantling it and reseating the connection? Laptop keyboards can be surprisingly easy to remove and replace - and Lenovo even have training videos to tell you how to do it!

Go here... https://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/l ... 20Training ...and find your model.

There are no videos that I can find for this model, which is the Ideapad 100S-11IBY. I did find some videos for completely dismantling it on YouTube, but that's a bit overkill.

It seems that other people have had identical problems and it doesn't look as if there is a clear solution. People have fixed it by changing their language settings or by disconnecting the battery. It's not clear that any of those solutions have been permanent.

We are upgrading my daughter to a proper 15.6" laptop.

As the netbook is working, for now, we will keep it in reserve for use as a lightweight machine when travelling. If the keyboard issues become a nuisance I might revisit the videos for dismantling it.

[twotwo22]

Here is the manual :-

https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mo ... 201509.pdf

Contrary to what I expected the keyboard is not easily replaced.

It looks like it is part of the 'Upper Case' see page 53 and 54