Laptop keeps inserting a 'q' when pressing left cursor (and other strange things)

DonnyDave

I've got an Acer Aspire laptop and I've recently taken it apart to look at the left "mouse" button that is next to the touchpad due to contact bouncing which causes single clicks to be interpreted as double clicks.

Having got it back together, it works fine except for that it keeps doing some strange things. I've just swapped the keyboard with another bought on eBay and it continues to do the following:

• Puts letter 'q' - I can't work out what sequence of events proceeds this. It doesn't have to be pressing buttons anywhere near the q.
  
  Just pressed left arrow a couple of times and it put q in then! Done it a second time in a matter of moments when pressing left arrow! And a third and fourth... yes definately if I press left cursor button consecutively, about the third or fourth press it puts in a q.
• When disk checking starts automatically (on DOS type screen, prior to getting into Windows), it says that disk checking has been cancelled when I've not pressed anything.
• When pressing the down or up arrows in Outlook Express when focus is on the list of e-mails it dongs part way up the list.
• When I use Acer Arcade to play a DVD, it plays a couple of seconds, then goes back to the start of the disc and keeps doing it. Hauppauge Win TV does similar strange things.

What could be causing this? The change of keyboard suggests that it can't be that.

The way in which the q appears when I press the left arrow and the DVD keeps rewinding to the beginning suggests something to do with the left arrow...

DonnyDave

I've just started a DVD playing in Acer Arcade and it kept going back to the beginning.

Whilst it was on it, I closed down "Launch Manager" which is a program that runs in the Tray and runs so that the additional buttons on the machine can be used, i.e. volume up/down, wireless on/off etc.

This suggest that it's not the keyboard, but something to do with these extra buttons.

DonnyDave

Closing Launch Manager seems to have sorted out the 'q' problem and the donging in Outlook Express as well.

GunJack

most manufacturer's bloatware that is pre-installed is junk. Use CCleaner's startup manager to stop it from running when you boot up

spacerace

Sounds like a hardware issue to me. something is registering clicks/keypresses when it shouldn't be. You've already swapped the internal keyboard - try plugging in a USB keyboard and Mouse and see if that helps/stops the problem. Sometimes those external devices can disable the internal ones - tho this is usually an option in BIOS.

DonnyDave

An update to this: I've discovered that the problem was the connection of the multimedia board (the PCB with the volume, stop, fast forward/back) on.

It's a thin ribbon and on the end one of the strips had bent back and was shorting to its neighbour. I've left it disconnected for now.



On a separate point, I had the laptop to pieces. I put it back together and found that nothing happened apart for the power LED coming on and the fan running. I re-plugged the connector for the screen lots of times and was about to give up.

It turns out that the problem was one of the RAM modules was not in place correctly. Why is there no POST beep as there is on desktops?

This would have saved a lot of my time!

spud17

Why is there no POST beep as there is on desktops

Some do, some don't, some have it switchable in BIOS.