What to replace when keys are hard to press

---

@derekantrican wrote:

I have a DELL 3800 and a couple of the keys don't register unless they are pressed pretty hard. I've taken the laptop apart and cleaned out the keyboard, taken the keycaps off to clean them out, etc. No luck. Do I need to replace the whole keyboard?

---

If it isn't too much money, I would replace the keyboard.

Or just use and external keyboard.

Same issue here. M38000 has been sitting for 4 years in a dry place and now the keys are hard to press. Some are working ok. On my m7540 the letter is randomly stopping to work too. Some sort of hardware glitch I guess.

I fixed my keyboard. It seems like some sort of oxidation has developed under the keys. What I did is I hard pressed every key several times rubbing it and pounding on it until it it was very responsive. I did this for all the keys. Keyboard is back to life. I will ask dell to replace my m7540 keyboard though as I have only 'a' 'z' 'e" keys not working randomly. 

@m7510​ Thank you for sharing your technique! This percussive maintenance brought one of our keyboards back to full functionality.  =]

@m7510​ omg, I never reply to these threads but felt I had to for this.

I have a Dell G7 for 4yrs pretty much docked always and this just happened to me when I tried to use it portable.. all keys have to press hard for a response. Did exactly what you said and hard pressed them a number of times and around the edges and issue is completely gone! Thanks so much!

You’re welcome :-)

I would change this to solved. The percussion method just brought the keyboard of my M3800 Dell Laptop back to live after 3 years stowed away. Sometimes the rough solution works :-) Thanks

Brilliant, @m7510​ -- worked for my kybd!

@Xnova​ same problem with my Latitude 740.  Cured it with brute force.

I removed the keycap from my Dell Latitude 7410 and used a spudger to press on the membrane, wiggling it around until I was happy with the response. Be careful not to break or unstick the nipple membrane.

I read one of the comments saying oxidation; maybe that's causing the issue. There is a layer between the contacts, I suppose. To test the keys, I would press lightly and or the corner on each side.

Best of luck, and tell me if you see any evidence of what I said.