a few months ago i bought Dell inspiron 1510 and all of a sudden i got this problem when the q key keeps coming out on the screen by itself... I've cleaned my keyboard already especially the one under the q key.. it seems like it's a software issue... caused by the movies or videos a recently downloaded from torrent sites... and i've never spilled anything on it or got it wet. Does anyone of you here know how to solve this problem?
If u think it is a software issue run full scan of computer with good AV soft like MS security essentials (latest definition must be installed). You know the real meaning of peace only if you have been through the war.
thanks for the tip but I've already scanned my laptop's anti-virus, though not an MS Security one and got nothing and it hasn't changed... do i still need to install MS security anti-virus and run? any other idea?
any other idea? I've searched online and a lot of laptop users have shared this kind of problem, however no one has received the right solution... :( I hope i could find the right thing to do here... it's a big challenge to the geniuses out there..
If you disconnected the onboard keyboard and it's still writing q's, then it's either a corrupt BIOS or windows driver or you have malware in operation. You can try a puppy linux cd to separate off the windows driver / malware issues.
I would expect that it is a hardware problem, maybe in or close to
the "Q" key, but just as likely somewhere else in the hardware
which scans the keyboard or receives input from the keyboard.
If you are able to disconnect the keyboard in a laptop, maybe you
are also able to plug in a different keyboard for testing? I have no
idea whether keyboards are generally plug-compatible. It has been
too long since I last disassembled one to remember how they are
connected internally.
If you still get q's with a different keyboard, you know the problem
is not in the keyboard.
-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
puppy linux cd? i don't have any idea on how to use it... and if my laptop has a corrupt BIOS then what should i do? co'z it's really possible. I don't use a battery so I sometimes experience shutting it down accidentally by unplugging the adapter. what to do then?
Sudden power events can corrupt the bios or other drivers. You should start by updating or reinstalling the pertinent driver. Then flash the BIOS if necessary. It's very good to have the battery in and charged, or be on an UPC, because otherwise a power event during a bios flash could be the end of your MB. Puppy is pretty easy to use if you want to do that diagnostic.
@Paul, thanks for the idea. I bet this is one of the things I need to do, though it's kinda risky co'z I've never tried it before with my old laptops. If I do it then it will be my first time. Just yesterday, I experienced some kind of trouble again like 4 times in row when I turned my Laptop on and the OS couldn't get in. The monitor just showed me the Windows Logo for about 30mins. So I just did a hard reset but still it didn't work. So I decided to turn it off and give it a break for 10 hrs or more. Fortunately when I turned it back on just this morning, it seemed like it's pretty fine and everything was good except the issue on the Letter "q" key. Still, it comes out by itself...
have you tried going into safe mode on windows 8 and see if it still does it? if it doesn't it's a software issue then. if none of the suggestions above work call dell since it's under warentee still, there might be a short in your keyboard.
Iron Sharpens Iron.
@Cobra, yes I can try that... but thing is, this issue doesn't come out all the time. I mean sometimes i does, sometimes not. So what I need to do is just wait till it comes out while on safe mode, right?.. Okay, I'll give it a shot. Though if you happen to think of some other easy way to fix this.. pls let me know, it will be greatly appreciated.
