Urgent Dell laptop advice please.

[Wacky Racer]

Ok, Firstly can I state I am a computer numpty.....

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop, which is about three years old, which was running Vista basic...

About a month ago the "keyboard" started working very slowly, or "laggy", so if, for instance I typed "Pistonheads forum", it might have come out Pisonhads form...It is OK if I leave about a second between each letter, also the keys have to be pressed a bit harder than normal.

Also the mouse screen icon has a mind of it's own.

It has taken me five minutes to type this...........:-(

Virus scans said everything was fine....


In order to eliminate things, I have ditched Vista, and installed XP pro this afternoon, which works fine, BUT the typing problems remain.

Nothing has been spilt on the keyboard, (sticky drinks etc)


All advice gratefully received, and thanks in advance.........

[randlemarcus]

Given you have eliminated software issues by a nice fresh install, all that remains are physical problems. Somebody else has spilled stuff on the keyboard

Probably worth taking the keyboard retaining screws out, and seeing if there's dust or sticky under it. Might help to get a can of compressed air, and give it a gentle blow over.

[Wacky Racer]

randlemarcus said:

Given you have eliminated software issues by a nice fresh install, all that remains are physical problems. Somebody else has spilled stuff on the keyboard

Yes, very good....

[grumbledoak]

It's hardware, dude, as you've proved. Can you run up task manager and minimise it to watch the CPU usage?

[Wacky Racer]

grumbledoak said:

It's hardware, dude, as you've proved. Can you run up task manager and minimise it to watch the CPU.

Don't have a clue what you are on about..:-), but I'll mention both suggestions to my son who is a computer engineer when I see him tomorrow............

The keyboard suddenly seems to be working almost normally now, as I type this, and feels "normal/light" to the touch, so maybe it's an intermittent fault......Thanks for the helpful replies anyway, I'll see how it is tomorrow......

[grumbledoak]

Right click on the Task Bar (at the bottom normally) and (left) click "Task Manager". Minimise the resulting window and you should see a green 'meter thingy' in the bottom right. This indicates how busy your CPU is.

Then, if she only misbehaves when very busy, you've a clue.

You can get your son to set this up to run every time you boot. "Drag shortcut to Startup" should make sense to him.

[Wacky Racer]

grumbledoak said:

Right click on the Task Bar (at the bottom normally) and (left) click "Task Manager". Minimise the resulting window and you should see a green 'meter thingy' in the bottom right. This indicates how busy your CPU is.

Then, if she only misbehaves when very busy, you've a clue.

You can get your son to set this up to run every time you boot. "Drag shortcut to Startup" should make sense to him.

OK Paul, thanks very much for that........

[ScottishSamurai]

We have a dell inspiron 6000 and the touchpad gets very odd at points, i.e it gets chunky and moves everywhere!

I know some Dell stuff has a reputation of just getting worse the longer you own it, could just be that!

[Paul Drawmer]

Is this a Dell with a mousepoint device in the middle of the keyboard?

If so, go through the hardware profiles and disable the device. If it is the problem, you may need to cut the wire to the knob in the middle of the keyboard.

This site here put me onto it:
http://gimbo.org.uk/blog/2005/11/12/fixing-mouse-d...

Note that this refers specifically to the C600. If it is the problem with your later Dell, you will be able to get instructions for getting the keyboard off on the dell site, where their workshop manuals are online.

[ymwoods]

If you have knocked it about at any point it could be something as simple as the tiny cable that connects from the keyboard to the connection on the mainboard has become slightly dislodged, could account for the lack of response if it is still connected but not completly.