Acer laggy keyboard

[starLED]

Keyboard on my Acer Aspire ES 11 notebook started to be laggy.
When I type sometimes some keys are not detected, then I have to type again, but slower.
There isn't particular key that is not working, seems that in typing some keys are not detected.

Notebook is 6 years old, and battery is almost flat (it can last 1 min.), power supply is always connected.

What can be an issue?
Can the bad battery cause this?

 

[Papabravo]

IMHO the flat battery is unlikely to be the cause. The more probable explanation is contact degradation or corrosion on the individual switches.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Does the battery or machine get hot?

If the heatsink fins are blocked or the battery is partly shorted and taking excess current, the CPU may be throttling down to prevent it overheating.

>google<
It seems that the ES11 may be more like a Chromebook than a laptop, with only 32GB storage?

If that is the case and it is running Windows, how much free space is there on it? Less than 20% can cause Windows to slow down - and to an absolute crawl as free space reduces more, as it runs out of swap space & space to update the registry etc.

 

[starLED]

Does the battery or machine get hot?

If the heatsink fins are blocked or the battery is partly shorted and taking excess current, the CPU may be throttling down to prevent it overheating.

Nothing abnormal, it's laggy when it's cold (just started) also.

It seems that the ES11 may be more like a Chromebook than a laptop, with only 32GB storage?

If that is the case and it is running Windows, how much free space is there on it? Less than 20% can cause...

Yes, it's something like a Chromebook but running Windows 10.
It does have 32GB eMMC, there is 4GB free space, but that never been the issue with the speed, since there is 8GB RAM and it's running smooth.

IMHO the flat battery is unlikely to be the cause. The more probable explanation is contact degradation or corrosion on the individual switches.

Can I disassemble the keyboard and clean the contacts or maybe just pop out keys?

 

[Papabravo]

...

Can I disassemble the keyboard and clean the contacts or maybe just pop out keys?

That is a good question, and I cannot answer that. It would not surprise me if the answer was no. When keyboards get flaky, we pitch them. An hour of technician time is more expensive than a new keyboard.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

The keyboard likely uses a sheet of "blister" switches. These are made by printing silver ink or conductive carbon ink on a sheet of polyester film for each key, - as small gap in the circuit where each " key" will be positioned. A second layer of film is printed with only a small bridge of silver or conductive carbon ink and then formed to make a small dome with the bridging ink in the center of each dome. The sheets are marinated together and the dome makes an air pocket. The air pocket acts as a spring to return the key to its position and the bridge ink completes the circuit and actuates the key when pressed. You can look for a replacement flex key pad or blister switch array or what ever the seller is calling the switch in eBay, Amazon or aliexpress. It's a challenge to try to fix it. Just replace the component.

 

[Tony Stewart]

I suspect this is a Win10 laggy issue. Try in Safe mode or command line , and install Win7 or Linux. I can show you how to speed up Win10 if you can run "msinfo32" and save, then rename to any extension like .doc and attach. Then I can download rename to drop .doc and view in msinfo32 for problems.

 

[starLED]

Thanks for the help, I will wait to see if the keyboard gets worse and replace it with a new.

 

[Tony Stewart]

I still think you should test keyboard as I said.

 

[starLED]

I will test it tomorrow.

 

[granddad]

Might have a trojan , or key logger virus,

 

[Tony Stewart]

Why guess? Just send the NFO file as a .doc file

 

[starLED]

Might have a trojan , or key logger virus,

I don't think it would be that noticeable. Besides, I have antivirus always on.

Why guess? Just send the NFO file as a .doc file

I did try Safe mode in command prompt, and to be honest, I am not sure if it's laggy, maybe lot less, but it's there.
I can't pinpoint any particular key, any key is possible, even Shift or Left arrow.
Could be corrosion on flex cable maybe?

 

[Tony Stewart]

Is it latency on "ANY" key or missing key?

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[ZipZapOuch]

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[Tony Stewart]

If you know about virustotal app, API or website, you can trust this App is what I said it was. I've used it for over a decade.

 

[starLED]

I noticed that not only keyboard is laggy, but sometimes key is sending double strokes, again, no particular key, it's random event.
Can that confirm some hardware issue?

 

[Tony Stewart]

I noticed that not only keyboard is laggy, but sometimes key is sending double strokes, again, no particular key, it's random event.
Can that confirm some hardware issue?

Contact switch failures in laptops do occur due to the membrane design. Using a USB keyboard can be used to compare the results. I'd see like to see the software issues in the NFO file.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I noticed that not only keyboard is laggy, but sometimes key is sending double strokes, again, no particular key, it's random event.
Can that confirm some hardware issue?

It all sounds exactly like a knackered keyboard.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

As others have mentioned - try it with a USB keyboard.

If that works correctly you can be 99% sure the machine keyboard needs replacing. They are usually just a membrane key matrix, with the electronics built in to the machine motherboard, so a new keyboard is purely replacing the switch contacts and not any electronics.

A complete new keyboard for an ES11 appears to be £13.49 on ebay UK, if those are the correct ones.

Edit - apparently the machine full model is ES1-131 or ES1-132?
Keyboards for that are a bit more expensive, ~£17 whether ebay or Amazon;

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WORKS WITH : Aspire ES1-132 ES1-132-C37M C9N8. KEY FEATURES. LAYOUT : UK. All our products have warranty varying between 3-6 months.

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https://www.amazon.in/Aspire-E3-111-ES1-111-ES1-111M-Keyboard/dp/B0731M2JJC