Chosen Solution
Specific keys on my laptop work occasionally (most of the time they don’t work), however, I figured out that by mashing some of the nearby keys together I can get the keys to work for a short period of time before they stop working again. Affected keys include p, o, [, ], , (backspace), -, =, ;, ‘, (enter), (space), 9, 0. By mashing some of the keys on this side pretty hard I can get them work short-term. When running a diagnostic test on dells website it failed for “faulty wiring”, and am unsure how much of this contributes to the current issue. What is my best bet when it comes to this? Do I replace the keyboard? Or could something else be at fault.
Hi, Connect a USB keyboard to the laptop and check if that works OK. If so then most probably the problem is in the keyboard. It is easier to replace the keyboard than it is trying to fix it as usually you can create more problems than what you had in the first place if you try. Here’s the service manual for the laptop. Go to p.50 to view the procedure to remove the palm-rest and keyboard assembly. Search online for Inspiron-7405-2n1 keyboard to find suppliers that suit you best. Note: It seems that there are two keyboard, palm rest assemblies available. One is back lit (BL) and the other isn’t (No BL) so be sure to get the correct one for your laptop.
