Right-arrow key disabled

I cannot use my right-arrow key. It is very irritating as it won't work in MS Word, or when trying to scroll through images in a folder, or when I am moving through fields on a webpage form. The left, up, and down arrow keys work fine. Is there something I can do, apart from uninstalling and reinstalling the driver?I already did that for the keyboard, rebooted and the same problem persists. The laptop is an Inspiron 1501 (running Windows XP SP3), and its only a year old. I don't use this key very often so I'd be surprised to find out that it had simply broken down from over-use or whatever. There are no updated drivers in the Dell website driver section (for my laptop) for the keyboard.

BTW--I did a forum and google search and didn't see anything about this specific problem.

 

Personal experience: Even with a brand new keyboard, if you get something between the key and the contact, you may find the keys will stop working.

If you eat near or over your keyboard, this could likely be a problem. If that's true, turn your keyboard upside down and give it a few gentle shakes to dislodge anything that may be between the key and its contact.

If it's only a year old, you probably don't have to go through the entire process of disassembling and washing it. If you want to take it apart, you can, to check for anything between the key and the contact... But I never thought it was worth the effort, when I could just swap out keyboards.

PS - Anything you find makes for a good energy boosting snack. I hear it's being collected and branded as "Programmer Chow. "

 

Thanks for the idea. Next time I turn it off I'll shake it lightly and turn it upside down--the inspiron is a laptop so I won't shake it too hard. If worse comes to worse I can order a new keyboard... when I took it apart recently for some reason that escapes me it really didn't look like it would cost a lot...

 

Yeah it worked both before and after.... oh yeah I took the whole thing apart to blow compressed air, b/c it was shutting off inexplicably and I wanted to see if there were masses of dust inside, which I didn't see.

BUt yeah that was a few weeks ago if not longer and I'm pretty sure the key worked after that....

 

OK I did turn it off and vacuum around the edges, and shake a little bit (this is a laptop mind you) but it didn't work--the right arrow key still isn't working.

Any other suggestions?

 

Great idea. NEver thought of that. I'll let you know later on today... that is, if any typical pc keyboard can fit... don't think the one at home has a usb cable but I'll get access to one later today...

 

Yes all the arrows key work. I hooked it up to a keyboard w/ usb cable...well at least I know that the computer itself is ok...and it would be unlikely for a driver problem to affect only one key...which pretty much leaves the laptop keyboard itself as the culprit, right?

When I get home I will take off teh keyboard and give that key a good cleaning. I'm sure these aren't too expensive but I'd hate to have a problem with hardware after a bit more than a year....

 

Well I just took the keyboard off, shot a couple of tons of compressed air at all angles onto the key, and put it all back on--and it works now, for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I went back and evidently I just took the keyboard off (previously) around the end of October, and it is possible that it was at this point that it stopped working. Perhaps with all the fidgeting around, something got lodged. I don't know. All I know is that it is working now.

As far as the suggestion that food was an issue, that also is highly possible. I consume copious amounts of food and (non-alcoholic) drink at my keyboard. WHen I first got it, I looked around for a keyboard cover, but didn't see one for my laptop. For desktops it doesn't pay to do this for most folks but I sure would have liked to get one for my laptop. And yes I'm too proud to shrow some shrink wrap on it.

Thanks to all who replied--I always appreciate having you folks around when I get confused...

 

Why

Sorry couldn't resist.