Control Keys Not Working

Closed
FemixZn - May 29, 2012 at 09:04 PM
 Sunny - Jul 2, 2014 at 08:48 AM
Hey, I'm having troubles with the control keys on my laptop that are a bit unusual. They don't work, but in a strange way. I'll try to explain best I can.

First, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit on a Dell Inspiron N5040 Laptop. Hopefully that should help anyone diagnose the issue.

When I hit my left control key, instead of working as control, it acts as the following keys (special keys denoted in brackets): 8=-[Home]65[Help]
When I hit my right control key, it acts as the following keys: [Enter]\,.56-mvxzc
In both cases, when I hold down the key for long enough, it will end up hard-booting my computer.

This is a strange case of malfunctionality. I don't know if it's hardware or software, but either way it isn't working. I read somewhere to try hitting Alt+Ctrl+Fn, which when I did the first time seemed to work, at least briefly. But when I started my laptop again, it went back to malfunctioning. Does anyone have another solution? Or do I need to replace my keyboard? Thank you.
Related:

3 responses

Nevermind. I just figured it out. Part of the ribbon cable connecting the keyboard was stuck smushed underneath a chip, crippling the control key. All I needed to do was pup the keyboard out so I could move the cable and it's fixed.
my laptop is doing the same thing. coincidently it's the same model and same version of windows. i thought this would've helped me out but im not sure if im having any cable trouble
Does replacing the keyboard solve this problem? It seems Dell has this issue with the Inspiron series.