W key stuck in gaming laptop keyboard due to heat melting its membrane. Is there a way to work around it?

[Elioth]

Hello, i have a gaming laptop with an i7-6700HQ that usually ends up getting quite hot while playing some heavy games such as witcher 3 and the battlefield series, and recently i started to have a problem that causes my W key membrane to get "stuck" in its pressing state due to the excess heat produced by the CPU onto the keyboard sector where the WASD "gaming keys" are.

In order to solve this i have read about people that said they have added and "insulating layer" below the metal plate of the keyboard to help it resist a bit more against the generated heat from the CPU, the thing is, they dont say wich kind of material they used and im not sure if what i have in mind would be "safe" for the laptop health.

First i thought in using some kitchen aluminium foams or polystyrene by cutting a small piece and fixing it in the metal plate of the keyboard, but as i said, im not sure about it, so any help would be appreciated.

Also, here is a picture of the back of my keyboard, in case it might help https/images.avell.com.br/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/800x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/img_20180423_111501.jpg

 

[hang-the-9]

There are plenty of heat shield tapes and materials around, issue is to find out how much clearance you have between the keyboard and whatever is underneath it to stick that shielding to. Once you do that, search for a thin heatshield online and you will find some things to get. Keep in mind that these things mostly have a metallic component, so make sure it's not causing a short between components when it's on.

 

[Elioth]

There are plenty of heat shield tapes and materials around, issue is to find out how much clearance you have between the keyboard and whatever is underneath it to stick that shielding to. Once you do that, search for a thin heatshield online and you will find some things to get. Keep in mind that these things mostly have a metallic component, so make sure it's not causing a short between components when it's on.

Yo, thanks for the reply, i managed to find Non conductive aerogel one and a heat reflective tape , that is really thin, not sure about its conductivity tho, but i believe it will never get to the point of touching any circuits of the mobo, since its really thin. What do you think?

 

[hang-the-9]

That aerogel is pretty thick, I doubt that will work. You need to check the clearance between the keyboard, I don't have your model laptop to look at.

Also keep in mind this will reflect heat back to the source so you may end with an overheating system while cooling the keyboard.

 

[Elioth]

That aerogel is pretty thick, I doubt that will work. You need to check the clearance between the keyboard, I don't have your model laptop to look at.

Also keep in mind this will reflect heat back to the source so you may end with an overheating system while cooling the keyboard.

Took my time to also ask about the problem to my laptop manufacturer tech support, they said i can also use the same material as it is used to insulate heat from the battery and other components, they are tied to the back panel of the laptop and are placed somewhat around the battery zone, unfortunatelly they didnt told me what is the name or composition of that material so that i could lookup for it online, i dont want to resort to relocating the battery ones to the back of the keyboard

 

[christopherdtaylor1994]

Hello, i have a gaming laptop with an i7-6700HQ that usually ends up getting quite hot while playing some heavy games such as witcher 3 and the battlefield series, and recently i started to have a problem that causes my W key membrane to get "stuck" in its pressing state due to the excess heat produced by the CPU onto the keyboard sector where the WASD "gaming keys" are.

In order to solve this i have read about people that said they have added and "insulating layer" below the metal plate of the keyboard to help it resist a bit more against the generated heat from the CPU, the thing is, they dont say wich kind of material they used and im not sure if what i have in mind would be "safe" for the laptop health.

First i thought in using some kitchen aluminium foams or polystyrene by cutting a small piece and fixing it in the metal plate of the keyboard, but as i said, im not sure about it, so any help would be appreciated.

Also, here is a picture of the back of my keyboard, in case it might help https/images.avell.com.br/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/800x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/img_20180423_111501.jpg

Assuming you're using Windows 10 - do this:

Control Panel -> View Devices and Printers
You should see your keyboard listed there - right click and do "Keyboard Settings"

Change "Repeat Rate" to something slower. I had to do this and my "guess" is that Windows 10 (8 also) gets flooded with the keyboard commands when pressing W for long periods of time and there's a delay in flushing the buffer.

I've got mine set as follows:

"Repeat delay" : SHORT
"Repeat rate": 75% (where 100% is all the way FAST and too much for the input buffers I think)

 

[doolittle]

Best thing to do, is get a lap cooler like the Thermaltake Massive V20 it will keep the entire laptop cool when gaming, and prevent the problem from happening again.