Inspiron 1150 keyboard half dead

We bought this laptop in March 2004. Two months ago we replaced the
dead harddrive. Yesterday keys on the left part of the keyboard plus
spacebar stopped working (pressing keys shows no letters on screen).
Keys on the right part work fine. No liquid or water spilled. I'm
thinking of buying a keyboard from Walmart or somewhere to plug into
USB port. Is there any other suggestion? Thanks.

Yong Huang

"Yong Huang" <yong321@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:a41b8a1e-ca5a-4ec0-aa6e-4600e04a8c2e@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> We bought this laptop in March 2004. Two months ago we replaced the
> dead harddrive. Yesterday keys on the left part of the keyboard plus
> spacebar stopped working (pressing keys shows no letters on screen).
> Keys on the right part work fine. No liquid or water spilled. I'm
> thinking of buying a keyboard from Walmart or somewhere to plug into
> USB port. Is there any other suggestion? Thanks.
>
> Yong Huang



Call Dell Spare Parts for a quote on the keyboard. I suspect it will be
less than $30 (1-800-357-3355 ). Keyboards for that model can also be found
easily on ebay. Use an external keyboard until you replace the internal.

Directions for replacing the internal keyboard can be found here:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...rd.htm#1084976

It's a relatively easy fix.


Good luck -

Stew

you also might want to try removing and replacing the current keyboard. a
bad connection could be the cause of the problem. and doing this will give
you confidence that you can install the replacement before you spend money
on the part.

"S.Lewis" <Gossamer@interesting.com> wrote in message
news:6H5ek.68$t32.44@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Yong Huang" <yong321@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:a41b8a1e-ca5a-4ec0-aa6e-4600e04a8c2e@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>> We bought this laptop in March 2004. Two months ago we replaced the
>> dead harddrive. Yesterday keys on the left part of the keyboard plus
>> spacebar stopped working (pressing keys shows no letters on screen).
>> Keys on the right part work fine. No liquid or water spilled. I'm
>> thinking of buying a keyboard from Walmart or somewhere to plug into
>> USB port. Is there any other suggestion? Thanks.
>>
>> Yong Huang
>
>
>
> Call Dell Spare Parts for a quote on the keyboard. I suspect it will be
> less than $30 (1-800-357-3355 ). Keyboards for that model can also be
> found easily on ebay. Use an external keyboard until you replace the
> internal.
>
> Directions for replacing the internal keyboard can be found here:
> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...rd.htm#1084976
>
> It's a relatively easy fix.
>
>
> Good luck -
>
> Stew
>

On Jul 12, 12:13 pm, Yong Huang <yong...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> We bought this laptop in March 2004. Two months ago we replaced the
> dead harddrive. Yesterday keys on the left part of the keyboard plus
> spacebar stopped working (pressing keys shows no letters on screen).
> Keys on the right part work fine. No liquid or water spilled. I'm
> thinking of buying a keyboard from Walmart or somewhere to plug into
> USB port. Is there any other suggestion? Thanks.
>
> Yong Huang

A follow-up to my own message. I bought a replacement keyboard from
Dell for less than $20. It comes with instruction. Installing it is
easy. Everything works now. Thanks to Stew and Chris.

Before that, I took out the old keyboard. It was so dirty. I cleaned
it with 95% alcohol. That didn't solve the problem.

Yong Huang

"Yong Huang" <yong321@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:07e15be0-b33c-4387-ba32-b05936d168d1@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> On Jul 12, 12:13 pm, Yong Huang <yong...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> We bought this laptop in March 2004. Two months ago we replaced the
>> dead harddrive. Yesterday keys on the left part of the keyboard plus
>> spacebar stopped working (pressing keys shows no letters on screen).
>> Keys on the right part work fine. No liquid or water spilled. I'm
>> thinking of buying a keyboard from Walmart or somewhere to plug into
>> USB port. Is there any other suggestion? Thanks.
>>
>> Yong Huang
>
> A follow-up to my own message. I bought a replacement keyboard from
> Dell for less than $20. It comes with instruction. Installing it is
> easy. Everything works now. Thanks to Stew and Chris.
>
> Before that, I took out the old keyboard. It was so dirty. I cleaned
> it with 95% alcohol. That didn't solve the problem.
>
> Yong Huang



Nice work. Glad to hear you fixed it.