Hi Colif....so i went to the local computer repair guy , he said 95% of keyboards are easy to replace , the Asus X401 is in the other 5% , he showed me how to access the on-sreen keyboard, which i am now using for the d key . . an sold me a Dell keyboard for £5, which i will use when i get a USB port splitter . . .so the problem is sorted in a sketchy sort of way . . . he said the X401 is quite old now , i've had mine about 5 years so i guess i'll be looking at getting a new one sometime soon , the failure of the d key may be the beginning of the end . . i would like to stick with Asus ,in my uneducated opinion it's a good laptop, however i started with a 7inch EE Asus PC ,this had Linux rather than Windows and seemed to have less problems . . .thanks for your input . .all the best , Paul.