DELL Latitude CPx Keyboard Problem

After buying a refurbished laptop (Latitude CPx) online, I rAN INTO A
KEYBOARD PROBLEM WHERE the K, I, and 8 were not working at times.
Calling Dell was no help as they told me I needed a new Keyboard,
after telling them other people were talking online of same problem
even after keyboard was replaced. I had to find out on my own that
there is a serious design flaw where the connectors are pushing
against a piece of metal under keyboard, so loosening up screws fixes
problem or actually taking it aparts and looking for a bump in the
casing and fixing it that way will fix it.
MY Question is this... WHY Won't DELL Say there is a design flaw
when there obviously is... BTW Other laptops had this flaw too if you
look at msg boards.
does anyone know if newer dells have this flaw or did dell finally
fess up?
-
My own computer Support

I bought a used CPXJ 650 a couple of years ago. I also had problems
after a while with certain keys not working. I keep about 4 months
worth of archives and found a message that said take off the keyboard
and reseat all the contacts. I also used canned air and blew out all
the keys, especially from the sides. It will be obvious when you
remove the keyboard what I mean. All my keys are working again.

The hardware manual is very clear on how to remove and replace the
keyboard. It is available on the Dell Web site.

You can also buy replacement keybaords on E-Bay.

The CPX is a pretty good machine. Mine came with 256Mb, 20gig HD,
combo modem/ethernet PCMCIA card, Floppy, and DVD-ROM.

Put Oracle DB Server 9, Oracle IAS server, Apache , with an Oracle
Forms application and it worked great for doing demonstations for
customers, and training.

Hope this helps.

Mike

On 10 Feb 2004 11:15:01 -0800, (Sam) wrote:

After buying a refurbished laptop (Latitude CPx) online, I rAN INTO A
KEYBOARD PROBLEM WHERE the K, I, and 8 were not working at times.
Calling Dell was no help as they told me I needed a new Keyboard,
after telling them other people were talking online of same problem
even after keyboard was replaced. I had to find out on my own that
there is a serious design flaw where the connectors are pushing
against a piece of metal under keyboard, so loosening up screws fixes
problem or actually taking it aparts and looking for a bump in the
casing and fixing it that way will fix it.
MY Question is this... WHY Won't DELL Say there is a design flaw
when there obviously is... BTW Other laptops had this flaw too if you
look at msg boards.
does anyone know if newer dells have this flaw or did dell finally
fess up?
-
My own computer Support

This is nothing to do with screws and metal touching the 8,I, K key problem
is caused by the connector and there is a modified keyboard part No 7U031
these were all swapped out on machines in Warranty
"Sam" wrote in message
om...
After buying a refurbished laptop (Latitude CPx) online, I rAN INTO A
KEYBOARD PROBLEM WHERE the K, I, and 8 were not working at times.
Calling Dell was no help as they told me I needed a new Keyboard,
after telling them other people were talking online of same problem
even after keyboard was replaced. I had to find out on my own that
there is a serious design flaw where the connectors are pushing
against a piece of metal under keyboard, so loosening up screws fixes
problem or actually taking it aparts and looking for a bump in the
casing and fixing it that way will fix it.
MY Question is this... WHY Won't DELL Say there is a design flaw
when there obviously is... BTW Other laptops had this flaw too if you
look at msg boards.
does anyone know if newer dells have this flaw or did dell finally
fess up?
-
My own computer Support