Laptop issues

[imported_Uber]

I have a Dell laptop. From what I've heard, it probably wasnt the best choice, but it was a budget laptop for school, mostly.
Just today, the keyboard stopped working properly immediately after i had been playing a Game Boy emulator, which uses the keyboard as buttons.
For every key I press, it types two characters. If I hit i, it also types a k.
I rebooted, as this has a tendancy to solve most problems on a Windows based computer, in my experience. It did not help, and now I am unable to type my password, and thus use the computer at all.

Any advice, other than dont order laptops from Dell in the future?

I am currently dead broke, and thus buying a new laptop is completely out of the question.

 

[dementedlemur]

You could take the keyboard out and check the connections. That fixed a similar issue I had with an older Latitude. If that doesn't help, a new keyboard might be the remedy.

 

[SilentVixen]

What model is it?

 

[raincityboy]

My shop has a dell with the same problem. I replaced the keyboard once, but the problem came back after a few months. We had a spare USB keyboard, so they decided to use it for now.

You can get a replacement from ebay pretty cheap.

 

[imported_Uber]

Its an Inspirion B120, if that helps at all.
I'm kinda worried about my own ability to take a laptop apart and put it back together correctly.
If I took it to a computer repair shop, could they fix it for a reasonable price?

 

[dementedlemur]

Originally posted by: Uber
Its an Inspirion B120, if that helps at all.
I'm kinda worried about my own ability to take a laptop apart and put it back together correctly.
If I took it to a computer repair shop, could they fix it for a reasonable price?

It depends on the experience of their techs. I bought a Vaio w/a non functioning screen from someone who took it to their local shop and the tech told them it couldn't be fixed. It turned out to be a disconnected LCD inverter that took me 15mins max to fix. You can probably search for the dell manual on your laptop as a keyboard replacement is something relatively easy to do.

 

[Kaervak]

Removing/replacing the keyboard is usually one of the easiest things to do on a laptop. My Inspiron 8200's keyboard only takes four screws to remove it, and on the underside of the laptop all the screws you need to remove have a K next to them signifying they're for the keyboard. After that, the connector for the keyboard ispretty straightforward. Regardless, Dell makes their service manuals available online which show you step by step how to completely tear down and rebuild the laptop.