I havee tthe same prroblem as you caan seee on my Latitude CPx J.  I boughtt aa new keyboarrd aand its sttill doing itt, getting very annoyed with itt, is tthis sspecific to Latitudes or is it a Dell problem accrross aall theeir laptops cos if so I won't be buying aanother !  I have alsso rreebuiltt my OS from the ground up, no changee

Anyonee got any suggs as to how to fix it ?  Sincee I have tried a replaceemnt keeyboarrd and it still does it it leads mee to belieeve the problem liees elsewhere

reegards

Chris

The key symptom is when I get an extra character after I type another, for instance

"as" becomes "asa"

I'm pretty sure that's not the keyboard, but I can't find a Windows or bios setting that matters. Plus, the problem comes and goes. So far this morning I've had NO repeating characters. I've been using laptops for over 14 years, and this is the first one with this problem. I never have this trouble on my desktops, unless my fingers slip.

-John

Whats the official Dell line  on this ?  I  can't  think oof anything else to try, verey annoying  especially when  I have forked out for a new keyboard and its almost worse !

I haven't called Tech Support yet. This is probably an intermittant keyboard controller issue, which means motherboard. I'm guessing there's somee other trigger too...there it goes.

BTW, I've had that same typo: verey.

Using an external keyb would definitely help point to the root of the probleem. Unfortunately, this Latitude doesn't have a PS/2 connector, and I don't have a USB keyboard. (Wonder if a Mac USB keyboard will work...)

John and other users:

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Please look at the solution posted as item #4 on the Keyboard / Pointing Devices FAQ.

I tried all the steps, and it still adds extra characters.

I tried a USB keyboard, but all I could locate was one for a Mac, and the lack of a Delete key was worse than the original problem. :-)

 

-John O

I bought a replacement Latitude CPx keyboard on eBay, installed it and the problem was worse !!!

Finally I bought a black Dell serial external keyboard on eBay for £5.50 and it works fine (my workstation just takes up a bit more space now)

None of the 'stock' try this fixes worked for me, not impressed to be honest, will consider other brands when I need a new laptop

Chris

Well Chris, I'm not giving up on this machine just yet over a wacky keyboard, but I'm definitely going to pursue this and get it replaceed with a new one.

-John

HA!!!  I was beginning to think I was crazy until I see that other users are experiencing this same problem.  I too have replaced my keyboard, and initially the problem was gone, but now it is back again.  ARGH!

 

Just for point of reference, I am running Windows 2000 on my CPx H.  What OSes is this problem occuring with?

 

- Justin

Win XP in my case.

This appears to be a common problem, since I have read many other reports of it happening.  Dell, however, is silent on the matter.  Somehow I am not surprised.  How hard can it possibly be for them to replicate the problem and provide a fix?!?!

Anyone find a solution to this. The Dell Tech suggestion of reviewing point 4 in the FAQ was not appropriate, as that fault was for keyboards not responding. Whereas, my wife's laptop
generates extra characters.

Her Latitude CPX 650 is running XP Pro.

I'd be interested to hear of the solution, if known !

Mark

A month ago I turned on the keyboard clicks in BIOS. The machine is noisier, but I can hear the extra characters as I type them. This also helped me diagnose how and when the extra characters happen. My opinion is that the keyboard mechanism itself is a flawed design. It doesn't handle near-simultaneous key clicks wewll. IOW, there's too much gray area between a click and a non-click. Probably related to the low-profile of the keyboard.

However, I had a similar problem with an Inspiron 7000 (circa 1998), and it's entirely possible the keyboard controller logic--same then as now--is flawed.

All speculation until Dell decides to talk about this. This is a pretty stupid problem for a $1700 machine.

-John

A couple months ago I bought a replacement keyboard from somebody on Ebay for about 20 bucks plus shipping, and the problem has since vanished (though it might appear again in another 6 months).  It is definitely a hardware problem.  The keyboard is easily removed and replaced with 7 screws.

I suspect the problem may be related to heat.  The later BIOS revisions tried to get smarter about turning the fan on, and as a result the processor tends to run a little hotter, which may be damaging the keyboard, warping it, etc.  Who knows, just a thought.

- J