Some keys on keyboard works sometimes, why?

hi

i have a compaq presario 900 laptop. Sometimes 4 or 5 keys dont work at a time. I dont know why. i opened and cleaned the keyboard, unplugged the keyboard cable and plugged it again. still i have the problem. i dont think its a problem with dirt because at any one time the SAME 4 or 5 keys dont work at the same time. after a minute or sometimes after few minutes those keys work. someone said that its a spyware and if someone knows the name of the spyware it'll be of help.

its running windows xp professional. please help.

It is not spyware.
As it's name say "spyware" spies, it does not break keyboards. That would be "keyboardware".

Most likely some flat cable was broke.

can you say which keys cause the problem? is it always the same keys?

I concur with mphill-- it's likely a damaged ribbon/flexprint.

From memory I can remember "Y U H" and another 2 keys didnt work at the same time. When they stop working its the SAME 4 or 5 keys that stop working.



It cant be. coz if a ribbon / flexprint is damaged then these 4 or 5 keys should stop working permanently. BUt it doesnt do that. Those keys starts working after a few minutes. So it must be something like a trojan thats mucking with it.

i think it could be a mess up with the os, those keys are the number pad when numlock is switched on is it not? if your not activatin ghte numlock, maybe the system is, stickykeys perhaps? press shift 5 or 6 times and check out the options. also geoffrey watch your posts, no need for the duplicate double post

Son, I've been fixing computers on a regular basis for well over twenty years. In that amount of time, I can say positively that I have never, ever, seen a trojan, virus or other malware disable only certain portions of a keyboard.

I have seen, however, intermittent wiring problems cause that and far stranger symptoms.

I would suggest trying a different keyboard. They aren't all that expensive, and fairly easy to replace, as far as hardware goes.

Hi,

Well when i went to check it i found out that the keys '4 5 R T F G V B' didnt work all at the same time. You can see a trend there. After a few minutes it started to work again, All of them. One strange thing I noticed is that the Num lock light is ON all the time. Even when i press the Numlock key it isnt turning off. I didnt check to see if that light was off when the keys werent working.

i had a look in stickykeys and i think it all looks fine. Didnt know what to look for.

I'm quite new to forum stuff, posting etc. So didnt know that i did a double post. Is it kinda offensive to do that in forums? If so, i'm sorry.

Thanks for your help.

on laptops?!? theyre like £50-£60 (probably the same in USD) cheap?!?



Not so much offensive, more against the forum ettiquete, its ok, just read the rules, we all make mistakes

And a new laptop is what? I'd bet it's significantly more than a replacement keyboard, no?

And I never said cheap.

In light of the latest information pertaining to this problem, my recommendation still stands-- the most likely culprit is a bad keyboard or associated cable. You can get a replacement cable for cheaper than the keyboard itself, I'd warrant, if the cable doesn't come with the replacement hardware, so you could try that first; but I'd go with replacing the keyboard.