17 R4, keyboard gets stuck/freezes randomly

Hi @GreenwoodArcher  seems that your 17 R4 is occasionally very busy and does not have the resources to cater for other computer activities. Task Manager will tell you about real time system performance and can be used to monitor your system resources, manage processes and kill unresponsive applications. Check that all the applications not required are not running. Have a look in Task Manager > Details and click on the CPU header (and then memory) to bring the most active process to the top of the page. If this process is not required, switch it off.

There are alternative Task Managers whose History tab tracks and stores all the process activity. 

Try using the Malwarebytes free downloads to look for and remove any malware. 

Hello @crimsom thank you for your reply!

I scanned my system with both my own antivirus (avast) and the one you provided, and nothing showed up. It just happened again, and I just had one window open with Chrome watching a YouTube video. I checked the Task Manager, and it showed System Idle Process at top, with CPU at around 92, definitely not going below 85. So I wouldn't say it gets overwhelmed.

What I did notice was that the keyboard was working, I was watching the video and for a split second the sound buzzed, almost like when a computer freezes, and then the keyboard wasn't working. It was super short, I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't paying attention. However, an external keyboard that I plugged in works just fine.

Hi @GreenwoodArcher  having switched on the 17 R4, open the Task Manager and wait five minutes for it to settle. With no applications running: the CPU should be about 4% and the disk should be about 0%. The Memory might be about 40% or less if you have lots of RAM. (You have already looked in Task Manager > Details to check that System idle process is more that 90%.) 

If your CPU is more than 10% with no applications running, your computer is being overwhelmed by a very hungry process and that will result in random freezing. 

What did the Event Viewer say about random freezing? 

Hi @GreenwoodArcher  as the 17 R4 works well with external keyboard plugged in, what is the condition of the 17 R4 keyboard. 

If you shine a strong light beneath the keys, is there debris. Is there a smell of burning when 17 R4 freezes. If the AlienFX Lights are toggled off (Fn+F12), the laptop moved to a dark room and the screen black (or covered), are there sparks from beneath the keys when pressed? 

It should be possible to use the vacuum cleaner with an improvised small nozzle, to carefully extract any keyboard debris lurking beneath the keys. 

Step 1: Click to open the "My Computer" properties option, select the hardware tab, open the Device Manager, click to open the "Keyboard Options". The default keyboard driver is "standard 101/102 keys or microsoft natural ps/2 keyboard". Right-click to select update driver, the hardware update wizard will appear, select "install from a list or specified location (advanced)"
Click "Next" and select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install."
Click "Next" to enter the "Select the device driver to install for this hardware" page and remove the check box "Display compatible hardware". Select "japanese ps/2 keyboard (106/109 key)" in the "standard keyboard model" column,
Click "Next", the "Update Driver Warning" pops up, click "Yes". Continue to click "Yes" in the "Confirm Device Installation" window.
Step 2: Click the "Start" menu, click "Run", enter "regedit", open the registry, expand "hkey_local_machine/system/controlset001/control/keyboardlayouts", open "e00804", you can see the right sub There is a "layout file" sub-item in the item, double-click to open the item, change the "kbdus.dll" in the "value data" to "kbdjpn.dll", "OK", and then restart the computer.

If it doesn’t work, I suggest you reinstall the system. If it still doesn’t work, just replace it with a new keyboard.

Hello @crimsom, I vacuum my laptop fairly regularly and use a can of compressed air to get rid of any dust inside, and I don't see any debris under the keys. There are no sparks or strange smell either.

I opened the Task Manager as you instructed, the CPU was at 1-2% and the memory at 15% (Disk, Network and GPU were at 0). I've checked the Event Viewer (I'll be honest, that is completely new to me) after a mini freeze, and there is nothing in the other Device Manager tabs that is from today. The Administrative Events are attached below, I don't really understand what it says: 

Hello @xiaomei I followed your instructions but after the laptop restarts it changes the driver back to the original one. 

Hi @GreenwoodArcher  thank you for sharing the image. The Event Viewer has two keyboard topics, so something is getting its attention. See if there are any keyboard critical events that keep reappearing. Open these and hopefully you will see a reoccurring Microsoft error code. Search for this error code on the internet to see other posts with keyboard problems and their solution, which might also be your solution. 

Now that this problem has your attention, try and determine what you were doing and if it always happens during a particular activity.