Updating BIOS to F.57 Rev.A, and keyboard issue

[Naresh-pc]

Hello HP team, 

I just found a Bios update version F.57 Rev.A for my hp laptop. I also found that my current existing bios version of my laptop is F.53. The reason I went back to checking my bios is because of an issue with the functioning of my keyboard. Everything over these years were normal until this happened recently, after installing a PC game software. Don't know if this was the reason for the issue with my keyboard. The issue that I found in my keyboard is strange. My control key (Left) presses intermittently for few seconds and then stops. It never allowed me to type write characters when control key is pressed. Surprising part is, when I hold the F6 key, all the key works very normal. In this ways, I am surviving to login to my windows my typing password. Even, this message to you typed by holding the F6 key, so I can write a message. A temporary remedy I found to this issue is using Sharpkeys applications, through which I turned off the ctrl or control key so that I can use the keyboard without holding the F6 key. Let me tell you, I have never anticipated such a problem or heard of it until I started to read some users have this issues.

In your experience, do you have any idea what is causing this problem, and how to fix permanently?

Do you think updating bios could help this?

Please, enlighten me.

Cheers

Naresh

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Naresh-pc You are right, ideally, a BIOS update should do the trick, if that doesn't help, you could check if changing the keyboard layout makes a difference,

Also, I recommend you attempt the below steps to identify the cause of the failure and resolve it accordingly:

• Try changing the keyboard layout/language and check if it works: Click here for steps.
• Clean the keyboard with compressed air (blow compressed air in the gaps between keys). This removes some lint and dust. 
• Shut down the laptop, remove the battery and cable for a moment, press and hold the start button for 60 seconds
• Replace the battery, restart the notebook,
• if the issue persists, perform an interactive hardware test on the keyboard using the steps mentioned on this link: Click here (look under "Running Component Tests > Keyboard test").

P.S: Welcome to HP Community 😉

Let me know how that pans out,

If you feel I was helpful, simply click on Accept as Solution to help the community grow,

That said, I will have someone follow-up on this to ensure you've been helped,

Just in case you don't get back to us, 

have a good day, ahead.

[Naresh-pc]

Hi, 

Thank you for the explanation. Except cleaning the keyboard with compressed air, I have tried everything few weeks ago. It didn't help. I didn't mention in my first post, but I have also reset my PC to factory defaults using HP recovery partition. The reset was successful and have installed all the updates and my PC is fresh now. But, the problem with keyboard remains the same after reset. Then, I started to suspect that the problem could possibly with my hardware related to keyboard. I tried to read many keyboard related web forums to find out if someone faced the same issues like me. I came closure to something, who had same problem like me. The discussion in that forum helped me gauge what exactly could be the problem. Since the keys functions intermittently, it could be because of breaks in the keyboard cables, or conductors, leading to malfunctions in the keyboard performances. Please go to link below, if you wish to refer the information, which I suspect as my problem. 

https://superuser.com/questions/603433/why-do-particular-keys-on-my-laptop-malfunction-intermittentl...

Let me know what you think of this. According to you, updating BIOS could help this, but what if the keyboard hardware inside the laptop has the problem, which people it relates to the changes in the magnetic field from motherboard. 

Please let me know your opinion on this. 

Thank you, and sorry for being little late in my response. 

Cheers

Naresh

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Naresh-pc Better late than never 😉 

My opinion depends on the hardware test I had suggested to perform, if you could, perhaps, give that a shot too, here's the link again for your reference:

• perform an interactive hardware test on the keyboard using the steps mentioned on this link: Click here (look under "Running Component Tests > Keyboard test").

Let me know how that pans out.

[Naresh-pc]

Hello, 

Thank you for your patience, and very sorry the delayed response. I have tried your suggestion to perform a hardware check for the keyboard. Given a try, I, unfortunately, unable to perform the keyboard test or even complete it. Because, as I mentioned earlier, I had to press F6 key always to type any keys, which makes the problem clear that the key isn't working normal. Please note that I see this problem, even during boot, for example, when I had to enter Bios to check something, or while attempting to do boot computer using legacy mode. So, this is clear that even before starting the windows itself, I get this malfunction of the keys, which makes me believe that the keyboard must have a hardware related problem.

I hope you can understand the problem. I think the interactive keyboard test post-booting may be helpful if windows files has any corruptions or errors, where in my case I see the problem during the boot. Please provide your insights. 

If you still want me to take the keyboard test, then i think I will have to do this test by keep pressing the F6 and type the other keys, or have to disable the ctrl key using Sharpkeys application. I feel it would make no much sense to take up the keyboard test at this time, as the keyboard doesn't allow even to use it properly. 

Thank you and regards,

Naresh

[praveen196]

@Naresh-pc Welcome to HP Community!

I understand your concern.

In that case, I would suggest you contact our phone support and check for the support option. They will help you.

Here is how you can get in touch with phone support.
 

1)Click on this link - www.hp.com/contacthp/

2)Select the product type.

3)Enter the serial number of your device or select let HP detect your product option.

4)Select the country from the drop-down.

5)You should see the HP phone support number or Chat option listed.
 

We are experiencing longer than expected wait times to reach an agent due to the CoViD-19 impact and there might have been issues in you getting the expected resolution on the issue. 

Keep us posted,

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, 

Give us a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on this post, 

Have a great day!