My Shift key suddenly stopped working.
Hey all, Kevvl here. I have no idea why, but somehow and for some reason, my Shift keys no longer work. I can tell this isn't a hardware problem because it's not isolated -- it doesn't matter if I hit the left or the right shift, nothing happens to the letters I'm trying to type.
I don't have any viruses, I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary when it stopped working, and I've already rebooted to no avail. I run 32-bit Vista if that helps. Any idea what the problem could be? I'm getting kinda tired of copy-pasting punctuation and hitting caps lock whenever I want to use a capital letter.
March 29, 2011
2 Comments • Newest first
If it's both Shift keys, it's probably a broken trace on the plastic sheets that make up the key matrix. If it was a contact problem it would only affect one or the other.
Another (very slight, grasping at straws sort of thing) possibility might be that the connector between the plastic sheets with the matrix traces on them and the keyboard encoder board might be loose or skewed. If you take it apart, you'll see a small circuit board that's connected to the wire coming out the back of the keyboard. Somewhere on that little board should be two flat connectors with narrow whitish plastic strips that come from the larger whitish plastic sheets below the keys, plugged into the connectors. Try gently pulling those strips out of the connectors, then plugging them back in firmly.
It's not likely to help, but it's about the only thing you can do with a keyboard unfortunately.
[quote=x1king1x]Did you check sticky keys? search that up?
Is this laptop or keyboard?[/quote]
Sticky keys is not on, I have it disabled from ever showing up and I just double checked.
Not-laptop. Standard keyboard.
*edit* I just plugged in my secondary keyboard (which I'd previously gotten rid of because the E and L-Shift keys were permanently stuck.) and shift works perfectly. Neato, my other keyboard is just broken then.
Still, if anyone has a solution, I'd rather not use this one.