Is HP Model 3168NGW keyboard acting up and glitching? Need some fix-up tips here.
Is HP Model 3168NGW keyboard acting up and glitching? Need some fix-up tips here.
My HP laptop Model 3168NGW running Windows 10 Pro has a weird problem that I cannot fix easily. The keyboard output is all wrong at best. When I press the numbers near the top, I get the letters instead of the digits. For example, pressing ! gives me 1 instead. Pressing shift does not help either. Every key shows up in capital letters. Even when caps lock is on, the keys show as lowercase too. Nothing changes if I keep pressing the number keys. The numpad works sometimes and other times. This is the only way to get numbers out. The on-screen keyboard makes the same mistake. Using a USB wired keyboard does not fix it either.
I have tried these things:
- Trying to change keyboard settings and turn sticky keys off. Nothing worked.
- Installing a new hard drive with Windows 10 already installed. Same problem happens now.
- Cleaning dust out of inside the computer (it was really dusty).
- Reseating the keyboard cable to make sure it is fully plugged in.
- Wiping the connection point on the keyboard cable with a q-tip and some isopropyl alcohol.
Is there any advice? At this point, I think it might be a hardware problem. Thanks for reading!
Take the built-in keyboard off the laptop and try using an USB one instead. If you can pop the caps off, maybe your SHIFT key is stuck down—that was the problem all along. You'll need to buy a new keyboard if trying to clean both of those keys didn't fix it.
Thanks for asking, I will try that fix now. I forgot to unplug the ribbon cable when testing a USB keyboard. I'll tell you what happens next day. The keyboard is clean and free from dust or sticky keys. Here are my findings: I unplugged the ribbon cable and only used the USB one. Caps lock isn't working anymore, but it's still broken. Every key seems to do something right at first, but most often just responds to a single press instead of keeping going. For example, pressing "1" again does not make it say "2"; it stays stuck on "1." Hitting the windows key opens start bar search, but hitting it again won't close anything.
Final Update: I unplugged the laptop keyboard from the motherboard, reinstalled Windows 10 with a USB keyboard, and now the system works fine as long as the USB keyboard is plugged in. Every sign points to a broken laptop keyboard. It's fixed. Thanks for your help before.
Here are the steps to test your keyboard: First, go to Windows and search for an HP PC Hardware Diagnostics app. Click it so it starts as a special program. If you don't have this app yet, download the newest version here. When the app opens, the main menu will show up. Next, choose Component Tests from that list. This part might look different depending on your computer. To start the test, click Input Devices, then click Keyboard, and finally click Run once. The keyboard check takes about 3 minutes to finish.
I found a fix back when it rained on me. The keyboard isn't working right now, but I got a USB one that works. The guy who owns the computer is okay with this plan until we find something better later.