Question Gateway GWTN156-1 keyboard malfunctioning? Randomly stops typing, puts itself in sleep mode even with external keyboard.

[gatewaycow]

Hi! First post here. I hope this isn't too long, I'm gonna try to be as thorough as possible for the sake of efficiency. Google says this is probably a motherboard issue, what's you guys' opinion? I bought this laptop a year and a month ago (one month out of warranty lol).

Yesterday, in the middle of typing using the laptop's keyboard, it suddenly stopped working. The shortcut for putting it into sleep mode still worked (F1), as did the power button and spacebar and trackpad. The "9" key worked for a second, but as if it was being held down continuously, then the laptop put itself in sleep mode. When I booted it back up, I used the on screen keyboard to navigate to keyboardtester . com to check if it showed any stuck keys, and sure enough a couple random keys were registering as being held down ("9", the up arrow, and two others I can't remember). But they weren't physically stuck, just registering that way.

After this, I cleaned my keyboard with some air, I took off the bottom case of the laptop and disconnected and removed the battery and checked to see if the keyboard ribbon was still attached to the motherboard. Everything looked fine and connected from that side, the only thing I couldn't see was the connection ribbon coming from the keyboard itself, as I'm not sure on this model how to access it (I assume taking the case off around the trackpad/keyboard? I tried but the case was on super tight and was getting damaged from me trying to open it so I figured I'd wait for confirmation here if I should attempt it again).

The trackpad and external mouse are working, but it also acts like it's stuck being left clicked at times, so it continuously opens new windows instead of switching between them.

After restarting one time, I also received a "something went wrong on our end' error while trying to sign in with my fingerprint.

It will randomly put itself in sleep mode when typing, especially when typing quickly or mashing multiple keys at once.

I heard a bit of noise I don't usually hear while restarting a few times. Like a buzzing.

I doubt it matters, but the last thing I was doing before this issue began was testing some streaming settings in OBS. I'm a little worried I was resting my wrist too hard on the laptop while typing and maybe it knocked something loose or broke something.




I've tried:

• Uninstalling the keyboard drivers and restarting so they re-install
• Plugging in an external keyboard (same issues, although with less frequency)
• Cleaning the keyboard
• Removing the battery and checking connection to the motherboard
• Uninstalling the most recently installed programs
• Rolling back to last week in case it was a windows update problem

Specs:

Win 10 vers 10.0.19043
Gateway 15.6" GWTN156-1
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00GHz, 1190 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date GPU Company LC-BI-15.6-N14IBR210-551-C, 8/25/2020
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Intel(R) UHD Graphics

 

[ManuelD13]

I'm having the same issue with mine, were you able to fix it ?

 

[gatewaycow]

I'm having the same issue with mine, were you able to fix it ?

Nope! Still using the same laptop with an external keyboard and I just don't move it from my desk or else it gets wonky lol.

 

[LaptopgeekGuy]

awh man, I have this exact problem. How were you able to utilize an external keyboard from the off position?

 

[Larry_54]

If you are still having the identical issue with an external keyboard, then almost certainly if is indeed a mb problem. Normally, the keys act as switches which send a signal to the relevant chip to produce a character on the screen. You seem to have eliminated the chance of dust or mechanical problem with the external keyboard. So unfortunately yeah, somewhere between the keys and the screen the power is malfunctioning. You could try opening the case and blasting it with air. But it sounds like you may be out of luck. Might be worth a trip to a repair shop for their opinion.