x17 R2, keyboard working intermittently

I've had my x17 R2 since September and occasionally the keyboard has stopped registering keystrokes intermittently. I've been able to counteract this by plugging in an external keyboard and each time it has somehow reset the laptops keyboard to start working properly. That all ended yesterday the keyboard started acting up again but this time when I plugged in an external keyboard nothing changed. I have since uninstalled all of the alienware/dell programs and reinstalled, I've tried updating drivers, and have even factory reset the laptop. All with no results. At first this issue was just an annoyance, but it has now turned into an absolute burden and for the price we pay for these machines it's an unacceptable failure. I've seen many similar threads and tried to resolve my issue based off of those suggestions but all seem to end with a dell technician getting involved and the thread going quiet. Can anyone who has had this issue tell me how to fix it?