Laptop keyboard broken but otherwise fine

waywardwolf

Hi, I have a really decent gaming laptop and the keyboard no longer works. I'm pretty sure my toddler son climbed up at the table and bashed it. I'm kinda tech savvy, and I used an on-screen keyboard to check everything over, tried uninstalling the keyboard itself and it's drivers and reinstalled, did updates etc. but I think there's a problem with the keyboards hardware itself. Everything else on the laptop works fine including the mouse...it's just the keyboard keys. They don't light up or work at all. It also works with an external , usb keyboard attached. 

The laptop is an Acer Nitro 5.
AN515-52-74DR

Specs are:

Intel Core i7-8750H 6 x 2.2 - 4.1 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile - 4 GB VRAM
Core: 1493 MHz, RAM: 7000 MHz, GDDR5, ForceWare 388.73, Optimus

Memory: 16 GB , 2x 8 GB SO-DIMM DDR4-2666, dual channel, each slot it occupied, 32 GB max.

Display: 15.60 inch

Storage: Intel SSD 600p SSDPEKKW512G7, 512 GB  

Realtek ALC255 soundcard

Connections: 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock
Audio Connections: combo audio, Card Reader: SD, SDHC, SDXC

Networking: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit/s), Intel Wireless-AC 9560 (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/), Bluetooth 5.0

Battery: 48 Wh, 3320 mAh Lithium-Ion, 4 cells

Windows 11 Home 64 Bit

Webcam: HD (720p)

My question is, can I sell it and is it worth anything or shall I just wipe and dump?

Neil_Jones

You can get replacement keyboards for laptops, see somewhere like eBay or Amazon, though be aware the default may be a US keyboard layout, rather than a UK one (the differences are the " and the @ keys are the other way round, there's no £ on 3 (it uses the # key instead) and Euro is in a different place on the top row - if you can live with these differences it may be worth considering)

tacpot12

It's worth something, but you will get less if you haven't repaired it (like with houses and cars). I would repair it and keep it for myself to avoid having to buy another laptop. 

facade

Have  a look for a replacement keyboard on eBay, and youtube for a video on how to do it.

You can probably download the hardware manual from Acer, but these tend to be a bit hard to understand unless you already know how to do it!

An i7-8750 with 16GB and a 1050Ti  will run Win 11 quite well, you will struggle to match the performance under £500-750 new.

HillStreetBlues

It depends what you want to do. If you're up replacing keyboard before buying a new one check  the connection first.
You  could get a keyboard that just lays over the non-working one.

SimplyBetter

waywardwolf said:

Hi, I have a really decent gaming laptop and the keyboard no longer works. I'm pretty sure my toddler son climbed up at the table and bashed it. I'm kinda tech savvy, and I used an on-screen keyboard to check everything over, tried uninstalling the keyboard itself and it's drivers and reinstalled, did updates etc. but I think there's a problem with the keyboards hardware itself. Everything else on the laptop works fine including the mouse...it's just the keyboard keys. They don't light up or work at all. It also works with an external , usb keyboard attached. 

The laptop is an Acer Nitro 5.
AN515-52-74DR

Specs are:

Intel Core i7-8750H 6 x 2.2 - 4.1 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile - 4 GB VRAM
Core: 1493 MHz, RAM: 7000 MHz, GDDR5, ForceWare 388.73, Optimus

Memory: 16 GB , 2x 8 GB SO-DIMM DDR4-2666, dual channel, each slot it occupied, 32 GB max.

Display: 15.60 inch

Storage: Intel SSD 600p SSDPEKKW512G7, 512 GB  

Realtek ALC255 soundcard

Connections: 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock
Audio Connections: combo audio, Card Reader: SD, SDHC, SDXC

Networking: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit/s), Intel Wireless-AC 9560 (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/), Bluetooth 5.0

Battery: 48 Wh, 3320 mAh Lithium-Ion, 4 cells

Windows 11 Home 64 Bit

Webcam: HD (720p)

My question is, can I sell it and is it worth anything or shall I just wipe and dump?

When did it stop working? When you installed Windows 11?

GDB2222

Assuming it’s just the keyboard broken, the laptop should work fine with an external usb keyboard. In fact, I prefer to use an external keyboard and mouse with my laptop.