Probook 4530s keyboard not working properly

[woodsie1983]

My laptop keyboard is not working right. While I type, many keys do not respond, I have to press them repeatedly to get them to work. If I hold anything down it only will give one letter, not multiple like normal.

[KibblieB]

I have also been experiencing this issue - since I bought the machine!  HP please respond!!!  We need to know what is going wrong - why the keys aren't consistently responding...

[PB-user]

Have you disconnected all (if any) external devices like keyboard, mouse, usb-drives etc

Which windows version are you using?

Which BIOS version do you have?

HP Notebook PCs - Keyboard Combinations of 4 or More Keys Fail to Register With the Operating System

Which version of HP Power Assistant is installed?

HP Notebook PCs - Keyboard Exhibits Erratic Behavior

Which version of synaptics touchpad driver?

Issues with Ctrl key

Does the keyboard issue occur if you start windows in safe-mode?

[JungleTiger]

It's a little strange for this post to ask these questions because the nature of this problem is so bizarre. I'm a very experienced IT pro and I experienced the same keyboard not responding correctly problem for this particular hp laptop which I never experience before in my whole IT career. I have this 4530s laptop preloaded windows 7 professional and I don't have any external devices and I never touched any preloaded settings but I had the keyboard missing typed chars. I looked at each complain posted and I totally believe this is the hardware defect which hp didn't find when their qa failed at this problem on this brand laptop.

HP, please wake up to solve this problem, OH! really, you require all the laptop users to check BIOS settings? it's just funny.

as a matter of fact, this problem still bothers me when I'm trying to posting this post!!!

one angry 4530s laptop user

[PB-user]

Did the previous poster actually read any of the links I provided? In what way are those irrelevant to the keyboard issue reported by the two first posts? Especially interesting is the HP customer advisory letter about a known BIOS issue:

(start quote)

"DESCRIPTION

Keyboard combinations of 4 or more keys (for example, H+U+O+F11) fail to register with the operating system. Additionally, when typing quickly on the keyboard, some keystrokes may fail to register with the operating system (for example, when quickly entering 10 letters, only 9 may register and appear on screen.)

SCOPE

HP ProBook 4530s Notebook PC"

(end quote)

It may very well be a hardware issue with the keyboards. But generally it is quite common to check for any software conflicts before sending a device for hardware repairs. If contacting HP support (or any other manufacturer) they will most likely follow a checklist regarding software issues.

Maybe the first two posters already did extensive troubleshooting prior reporting the keyboard issue here but it is impossible to know since it wasn't mentioned in the posts. Actually their issue might already be solved by hardware repair or software updates but we don't know since it hasn't been reported here.

Read this related thread and make your own qualified conclusions about this issue. 

I do not work for HP and do not represent them in any way!

Friendly advice: Don't hit the keyboard if you are angy as it might break.

[suefi]

The problem i have with the keyboard is while in the middle of typing the keyboard completely stops working. The only way to get it to work again is to restart the computer. There is no rhyme or reason for this happening one minute it's fine next nothing.

[theaerien]

my HP probook 4530 is experiencing the same problem. My left side keys are not working like A S X Q W 1 2 and escape button.. can u suggest any idea to repair these problem. i have tried 1 rebooting my motherboard 2 restoring to defaut of my mother board

[dubler]

I have somwhat similar problem with my 4530s keyboard. W,S and X keys completely stops working sometimes and then it stars working again, somtimes after a restart and sometimes a few repeated pushes does the trick.

I have already reformatted my notebook more than once and installed correct drivers with no luck. I have also upgraded my BIOS to see if that fixes the problem but the keyboard problem just reappeared a few hours later.

I need to know if its just some "hp bug" or that its a hardware problem and i need to replace my keyboard, because i dont want to waste good money on something that could be fixed.

I am running Windows 8.1pro x64 (up to date)

Some professional help would be really appreciated. 

EDIT: It turns out dust accumulated underneath the keyboard was the culprit and a thorough cleaning and servicing fixed the issue completely. 

[inform]

I suspect that the Probook 4530 has problems with its keyboard device driver (at least when you actually load programs, one or more of which may interefere with the driver).  I have replaced the keyboard. (HP provides a free replacement keyboard and I thank HP for that.) But the problem remains.  The workaround I found is to double click the cap lock, each shift key, the ctrl key, Fn, windows key, alt, alt gr.  This then frees up the keyboard from the "stuck" key, at least for awhile.  Since the keyboard itself is not sticking and the stuck key is always the control key and shift lock, I highly suspect that the device driver is buggy.

As others have noted, HP has issued no updated driver.  As I wrote at the start, I suspect that some other program (like Skype) interacts with the driver to create the problem and HP doesn't test the driver with real life programs running.  In any case, since the problem, while persistant, is not continual, it would be a bear to debug.

[ThomasOnyango]

did you ever get any help with this?