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Laptop Keyboard keys not working -- not a hardware issue.

Anonymous
2023-05-14T21:49:54+00:00

I have an ASUS ROG Strix G731GU running Win 10 Home v.22H2 build 19045.2965. A few keys on my keyboard stop working arbitrarily. In particular, the a key often doesn't work, though I sometimes have problems with the 1, the tab and the q. This has been going on for a few months. Here's the oddity I just discovered, though: these keys work fine in combination with shift or control. So it's not a problem with the keyboard switches. The problem is intermittent; sometimes they work fine. They also work if I hold them down for a few seconds. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the keyboard drivers, which did not help. Filter Keys is off. I'm not exactly sure how long this has been going on, so rolling back Windows updates would be a matter of difficulty. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-10T09:37:27+00:00

    So today I took the laptop apart. I started with just disconnecting and cleaning the keyboard ribbon as EdMilham posted above. That didn't resolve the problem so I continued to remove everything and get to the keyboard under the motherboard. This meant disconnecting a few wires and taking out almost all of the screws (all except the ones holding the heat sink to the cpu and gpu). I lifted up the motherboard and gave it a bit of a clean. It was a bit dusty. Unfortunately, this also did not resolve anything. The only thing left to do is to replace the keyboard...

    Just to be complete, I also did all sorts of other trials. Removing the keyboard from device manager, trying with another user account, turning off and on sticky keys, popping off the key and checking for dust under the key.

    I must say that I'm pretty disappointed with ASUS. The keyboard failing after 4 years is unacceptable. Replacements are like 130euro.

    From what I've seen over the internet, the left side keys slowly start to fail on many of the ROG series. First they still work in combination with other keys and after a while stop working all together. The keys not working for me were a, q, 1, left of 1, tab, left-ctrl.

    ASUS ROG Strix GL504GM

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  2. Paulo GM 67,240 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-05-15T00:41:45+00:00

    You can try an external one and then monitor it if you'll get the same problem. Also, try creating another local account to test if you'll encounter the same problem there.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-15T00:38:08+00:00

    Thanks for the suggestion! I did try to on-screen keyboard, which worked fine, but I haven't tried an external keyboard, yet.

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  4. Paulo GM 67,240 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-05-14T23:45:57+00:00

    Sorry, disregard testing it on another device as I thought it was an external keyboard problem. Since it is a built-in keyboard, you can also try inserting an external one to check if you'll get the same result.

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  5. Paulo GM 67,240 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-05-14T23:40:26+00:00

    Hi EdMilham, I am Paulo and I'd like to help.

    Have you tried testing it on another computer to rule out the possibility that it is really a faulty keyboard? Since the problem isn't something that can be replicable, testing the keyboard on another computer is a way to check if it is the problem or if it is Windows related. Another thing is you can also try creating another local account to check if you'll encounter the same problem there.

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