Hello all

I am new to this forum but very savvy in the computer world. I have built and repaired many computers, so the inner workings are familiar to me.

My daughter gave me an older Inspiron 1100 when she upgraded to a newer Dell. She had some problems with overheating. After looking on the internet, I opened the laptop and cleaned all of the dust and lint out of the heat sync fan and cooler. i also removed the CPU and cleaned off the old thermal grease and reapplied new.

After putting it all back together the middle row of keys did not function. I ordered a new keyboard and installed it. The new keyboard worked except for the following keys: g, h, single/double quote, and backspace.

I returned the keyboard for a refund and ordered another from a different vendor. I received it and installed it but the same keys malfunction.

The g,h, quote and backspace keys do not produce any output in a word processor, under a DOS command or in BIOS.

I either have something wrong with the motherboard or there were different keyboards available for the Inspiron 1100.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can provide any other information needed.

One other thing. If I connect to an external keyboard via a KVM switch all keys function with that external keyboard.

I have checked on other forums and this problem is not unique to Dell. It seems to be a connector problem either at the end of the ribbon cable or the matching connector on the motherboard. I have inspected both and do not see any obvious problems. Is there somewhere that I could obtain a replacement for the connector that fits at the end of the ribbon cable?

Thank you in advance.

SignoreCitizen