PCA Forums

I have a HP Laptop on which the Left CTRL key does not function. (right one works fine) I exchanged the keyboard twice and still the same problem. So it is not the Keyboard itself.
Any suggestions what else could cause this? Any settings i might not be aware off?
Dont really wanna swap the Motherboard for a none functioning key.

My bet is either a bad contact on the ribbon connector or like you suspect, the motherboard. Might try moving the cable around with the keyboard elevated & see if it works at some point.

I once had a laptop that would only work at odd times & it took me hours of searching to find that the connector between the motherboard & a daughter board had bad pins (that were not repairable). I ended up having to solder like 10 friggen tiny wires between the boards in really cramped quarters.

If possible, first thing you want to do is eliminate a software issue. Best way is hooking up another keyboard via PS/2 or USB, depending upon your ports, and see if you can get that key to function.

If it works with that, at least you were able to eliminate the software possibility.

My bet is it's the keyboard decoder chip on the mobo. When you replaced the keyboard you probably also replaced and re-seated the ribbon. The ribbon usually is permanently attached to the keyboard.

Zyfer is right though. Could be a software or driver issue, or even some practical joke virus so I'd do what he suggests and test it with an external keyboard.

Also, try booting with a DOS boot disk and see if the CTRL key works in DOS (if you press CTRL+G at the DOS command line, it will display "^G"). If the CTRL key works in DOS but not in Windows then that would confirm it's a software or driver issue. Maybe just uninstalling the keyboard driver and re-installing it might do the trick.

Hope this helps...

Well one point in meaning is, most laptops have their own special keyboard/mouse software, this could be glitchy itself. Booting into a non-Windows environment as suggested, would be best.

Thanks for all the suggestions, will try those next time I get a hold of her Computer.