Our laptop, bought in 2010, has served us well. The keyboard has deteriorated, however, causing skipping, extra letters, unintended errors (duh! make INtended ones?). I mongered about forums with questions, got back opinions, plenty, but wound up taking it upon myself to search for keyboard replacements. Found what seemed to be a legit site, http://www.laptopkeyboard.com/, ordered a brand-new keyboard for Forty Bucks (!), encouraged by their concise installation instructions. Just a little scary, my wife insisted on backing-up our pictures on a disc. The keyboard arrived Thursday, but she would not hear of messing with the PC until yesterday AM, when the "save" went down. Here's the picture, before I tore into it: The "N" key was gone, space bar very iffy, "I" was bad, as well as "E", and others. I had pried the bad keys out, inserted foam plastic beneath them, to get them "springy" again. That was 6 months or so ago, and I had gotten tire of having to proofread in quadruplicate! The new keyboard lying below the PC. Guess I still shake using a digital camera! Last night instead of forums, I pried the old keyboard out, learning it had been glued down as well as screwed. It had only a plastic backing, while the new one had a thin metal plate. Maneuvering the new one in place, I wound up with a kind of waviness across the face of the keys. Works well, but looks strange. Connecting the unfamiliar tiny cable which had no connector, just a flat ribbon of impossibly tiny conductors, was tricky; I gave it 50-50 chances. But, it works! Asked if I should remove it and glue it down, the reaction from my wife was icy: not on my life! Frank
@Ken Teas I don't understand. The keyboard has about 20 electrical connections. How could the USB connection, having provision for only 4, work? Frank
I had the same problem and fix it with a usb keyboard. I had key missing and then the kids split water on it. I had a USB key board and ask a techie to install two seconds and up and running. My laptop keyboard now has some letters slowly disappearing as the paint wears off.
Hal I agree with you but times change I went through many desk top computers and when the price got right I changed over to laptops now we have 5 in our house.
Laptops are more easily stolen and I find them more difficult to use. When I am home, I always prefer the desktop. When travelling, however, I use the laptop...and occasionally when I am lazy and want to use the computer for something and watch TV at the same time. Even my wife prefers the desktop to the laptop. When she is doing stuff on Facebook, she uses her phone, but occasionally she find something--maybe printing--easier on a computer, and she almost always uses the desktop. I agree with Hal on this one. Frank, if you used a desktop, you can change keyboards in a flash...monitors, too.
Laptops or, in my case, a MacBook, have their place. I have both an iMac and a MacBook. I actually have seven or eight working PCs and a very old laptop with Linux installed, but I don't use them much. I mostly use my iMac but it's a bit bulky to carry with me while I'm traveling and they'd probably toss me out of a restaurant if I started setting up my 27" iMac. I use my MacBook, which is every bit as powerful as my iMac, when I am traveling and I also use it with my standup desk upstairs when I want to work standing up for a while.
I used a desktop in my boat for navigation one of the reasons I could get parts and people to repair it almost anywhere I went as laptops would have to be sent away. The price difference at that time was a lot. Now with the price coming down as most all higher education system require them they have became quite reasonable. They have almost everything plug and play you need a keyboard just plug it in the usb and away you go in fact my keyboard went and I am on a plug in keyboard right now.
When I got my laptop and got used to it there was no going back to my desktop for me. I donated my desktop to my daughter (the Teacher) for use in her first grade classroom and I have never looked back.