AAARGH!

[KWLinda]

I dropped a stapler on my laptop and knocked off the L and decimal keys. I can't get them back on to save my life. I never realized how many L's I use when I type! Now I need to be VERY disciplined and not use this as an excuse to upgrade! Repeating to myself... I DO NOT need a new laptop. I just need to create a new language that uses no L's! (This took forever to type LOL) Any suggestions on how to repair without sending it back to Dell?

[kabin63]

Do you know anyone that is handy with this sort of thing? Maybe you could trade something you can do for their time fixing yours. Otherwise I would look into it on the internet and see if there is a site that could help explain how you might do this alone.

[YankeeMom]

I would call a local computer repair place before sending it off to Dell. They would probably be able to repair something like that fairly inexpensively. Provided you don't need a whole keyboard full of keys...

[KWLinda]

Thanks for the input, there is a local computer repair shop but living on an island prices tend to be inflated for everything. So in the spirit of Frugality I've decided to attach an external keyboard (saved from a computer that died several years ago) until I can find a way to reattach these things. They don't just snap on like other keyboards I've had. The have a plastic support that looks like the legs of a TV tray that attaches to the key and to the computer, I can't seem to get both ends attached, just one or the other, there's no room to maneuver, very frustrating as I was doing bookkeeping work (part time income) and the decimal was very important! Why couldn't it have been the seldom used "page up", "page down" keys???

Lesson of the day for me: Be more careful with my "toys"!

[fernykins]

Sorry you are having a hard time reattaching the keys........
Fern

[YankeeMom]

I did find a few links that might be helpful to you:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000800056067/

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hard..._21170038.html

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forum...d-problem.html

[lottaLove]

This happens to my Toshiba laptop sometimes. I just take the key, and push it back in. You have to push really hard, almost as though you feel you might break the key, and it should snap right back in. If you look really closely at the key, it should look like there is a suction cup-ish type thing on your keyboart, and a small little indent on the top or the bottom of your key where it will attach to the spring. The suction cup should go at the centre of the key. I figured this out one day when my "Enter" key fell off Let me know if it works!

[frugalfarmwife]

Ugh, I'd be upset too, hope you find a simple fix for it.

kj

[KWLinda]

Keyboard update, I found the perfect solution and it cost me absolutely nothing! I cut a piece of clear packing tape big enough to cover the crazy keys and the ones adjacent to them. It's keeping them in place and they don't rebound off after I hit them. Kinda like one of those plastic skins people use to keep their keyboard clean. I may leave it like this for years. It's working fine now.

Yankee Mom, thanks for the links, I appreciate so much that you took the time to do that for me.