Laptop Keyboard Aspire A315-41 not functioning normally

Is your notebook still under warranty?

Whoa there! Your post started alright, explaining the problem and then derailed towards a comment on unfortunate adventures with different support teams!

Even if the seller has a non-refund policy, which is fine I guess, they can't refuse repairs under warranty. Depending on your part of the world they may be for a year, two, or something else altogether; but it has to be covered under it for sure. Even if it were a second hand product, it failed after 2 weeks!

Aaaaanyway, regarding fixing it, do you feel comfortable regarding opening the thing? Aside from disassembling it entirely (I think they keyboard in those was part of the palmrest or something), you could try unplugging and plugging again the ribbon cable that connects the motherboard to the keyboard and hope for the best.

There are guides through the net and probably also video guides at YouTube on how to disassemble the laptop or replacing RAM or something that could be of help. The connector is usually set near the battery, by the bottom part of the motherboard.

Either way, if you find it risky, or you think it might affect the terms of your warranty, don't risk it and have Acer check it out.

Yes it is under warranty. Purchased 2 weeks back for my kid to attend online classes since school is not operational due to covid situation. Even if I have to unplug ribbon cable and plug it back it will void the warranty if seal is broken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhgnxUJoZo&list=FLVBqwtBw09_Z9tXo1Injakw&index=7&t=0s

Does the same problem occur when resetting the battery?

Yes I did try to reset the internal battery as suggested in video, however it seems keyboard is shorting the power. As a workaround I have to fix a paper on num lock key to keep it in pressed position so that notebook doesn't turn off. But this is not something acceptable on a brand new Laptop. I am using HP notebook since past 9 yrs, but never faced such issue of keypad. I assume and hope to be hardware issue and not related to BIOS. I wonder how technical team doesn't notice such flaw registered very frequently.

I also hope it's something that doesn't usually happen, but there's no way to know the amount of faults per product. I understand any component can fail, but it's frustrating for this to happen to a new unit.

You should ask Acer to service the laptop, it's brand new and it has a hardware fault, they need to make sure everything works before letting it go out of the shop.

I agree with colleague @aphanic. Every day there are reports of keyboard failures, mainly in the models a515-51 and a315-41, which are lowcost models and I myself mentioned this keyboard problem myself. Now, this problem is not common in other models. Now, you can also check if it may just be a bad connection on the keyboard connector.

I agree with comments from egydiocoelho. If a product fails frequently due to same fault how will Acer or any other OEM's act to gain customer confidence? @aphanic my introductory complaint was out of this frustration on "QC" definition. I did go through reviews on platforms selling Acer Laptops before the purchase and had to take risky call due to the lucrative offer positioned. Having said that I believe every product comes with a QC tag assuring customer that it is verified thoroughly. However I did not find that tag on the Laptop I received. My question to Acer Management is how do you assure quality of your products sold? I have paid full amount in advance and if Authorised partners are not able to service my problem raised within provided terms and conditions than you are faultering your sale as well as after sales service. If due to current pandemic you are not able to service customers to address such problems than why are you selling the product is my question to Acer Management?

Laptop still misbehaves..at times it turns on surprisingly with power button and stays alive without any requirement to keep 1 key in pressed position continuously and other times it powers off abruptly. Don't know when this Acer team will resolve this hardware problem. Service centre's are non operational due to lockdown. It's been almost a month I am keeping my patience alive with a hope that this Acer team will come up with permanent fix.

I wish we could know how many of the units shipped with the faulty keyboard, usually people only write when there is a problem and that gives us little perspective on whether it is widespread or just isolated.

It's no excuse to have service centers closed during lockdown though, each technician works alone (well, not alone alone, with other people as well, but you get what I mean); protective measurements such as masks, and some sort of alcohol-based sprays should be enough to work safely in a product and keep the business open.

There's clearly something wrong in the pathways of that keyboard and it needs to be replaced (assessing without physically checking, so take it with a grain of salt). Underneath the keys there's a flexible circuit board that's quite... sensitive )for lack of a better word) in my opinion. This ought to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojzzrKXFad8

My guess is that some of the traces aren't clean, so it's interfering with other functions, or they're damaged leading to the same problem.

In the meantime, do you have a vacuum cleaner at home or access to one? You could try using it throughout the keyboard (without dismantling anything!). There are attachments that are suitable because the have some bristles on the sucking end, but I've done it for regular big sized keyboards without them. Try cleaning them with that and see what happens.

You wouldn't be able to get to that flex circuit, but there's nothing to lose by trying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@aphanic : here I would like to comment / ask few questions:
1. If there are frequent complaints of faulty keyboards on acer Laptops, please tell me the root cause of those failures? Or we still live in an era of reactive approach to replace keyboards when fault arises?
2. I have not seen any other brand Laptops that fail on the 3rd day itself w.r.t. such hardware flaw. Why Acer?
3. I assume warranty support includes pick up facility at your doorsteps for hardware faults. I reside in a green zone area. Service centre is miles away in Red Zone. What would you suggest here? Should service centre folk visit my place to fix the laptop with new keyboard ( as per warranty policy) or should I being a Customer has to Visit red zone (as per service centre guy's instruction) ?
I do not have vacuum cleaner. If you suggest ,following solution will help solve the problem permanently then I will buy one.

NirajN said:

1. If there are frequent complaints of faulty keyboards on acer Laptops, please tell me the root cause of those failures? Or we still live in an era of reactive approach to replace keyboards when fault arises?

I can only wish I knew, but I have the same info you do, I do see some threads in the community about keyboard problems; but I don't see the big picture. Say we have 50 reports in the community for example, and there were 100 units sold of that particular model: they're screwed, that's a pretty big thing. But instead of 100 units sold, imagine there were 1 million, then it would be a problem as well, but not as severe or as impactful.

Because I don't work for Acer in any capacity, I'm afraid I wouldn't know what the cause of failures are. Some are liquid damage for sure, others may be cables that are pinched, maybe a connector is loose, ... no idea I'm afraid.

NirajN said:
2. I have not seen any other brand Laptops that fail on the 3rd day itself w.r.t. such hardware flaw. Why Acer?

I'm afraid so, last I saw was a mid-range Dell whose power jack failed just 1 week after use. And the guy was using it mostly stationary! Not travelling with it all of the time. But yes, quality control seems to be on decline across several brands: from bendy laptops due to their thinness and the lack of internal support, to backlight bleeding in the LCD panels because of too much pressure at the time of assemble (my experience at least).

NirajN said:
3. I assume warranty support includes pick up facility at your doorsteps for hardware faults. I reside in a green zone area. Service centre is miles away in Red Zone. What would you suggest here? Should service centre folk visit my place to fix the laptop with new keyboard (as per warranty policy) or should I being a Customer has to Visit red zone (as per service centre guy's instruction) ?

I'm afraid I don't understand what you meant about the different zones, residing in Spain things are different.

Warranty here for most brands is pick up at your doorstep (or drop in the shop where you got it), then wait (1-2 weeks), then delivery to your home address as well. But there are all sorts of complements for warranties and I think it depends on the brand, I'm not particularly informed on how Acer does things.

For example, Dell has a next day delivery which is top notch, a technician comes to your place (whether it be your home or your work, or if you're travelling, wherever you are) with the appropriate piece(s). Disassembles the laptop in-situ, replaces the pieces, verifies it all works and leaves. That service is amazing, but it's a paid one (I think it is somewhere around the 200-300€ mark for a 4 year period). Ordinarily they do like the rest, you get an UPS guy to pick it up and it is delivered to you after it is fixed.

I wouldn't know what to do in your situation, if the service center person wants you to go drop it off over there I think it could be hard to convince them otherwise, or paying the cost for the mail delivery.

NirajN said:

I do not have vacuum cleaner. If you suggest ,following solution will help solve the problem permanently then I will buy one.

I don't think it will fix the problem permanently, that would be just in case something was trapped in there making pressure where it shouldn't so I wouldn't advise getting one.

Maybe, press all of the keys in the power area at the same time a couple of times, is something is dislodged it could help it get into place; but I'm afraid I have no idea how to fix it without disassembling it and seeing it myself. It's complicated troubleshooting things like this from afar.

I truly appreciate all your responses. Yes definitely I would agree it is difficult to understand overall impact on no. of units with such faults, however at the same time if Acer would follow the service model provided by Dell as you mentioned above, prioritising resolution to known faults, it would still leave a better impression to Customer.

I meant covid containment zone classification here when I mentioned green and red zones.

NirajN said:
I meant covid containment zone classification here when I mentioned green and red zones.

Ohhh, I see, I think we're "free" to roam around now, mandatory lockdown finished for us for a while not but it is still encouraged not to take unnecessary risks and there are plenty of restrictions on some things, like how many people can be at a time in an stablishment (1/3 of the maximum I think).

You may need to wait until things calm down in your area, but give them another call and calmly explain the situation once again (frustrating, I know), maybe you get to talk to a different person that is more understanding.

Can you inform the version of the bios? Sometimes, a bios update can correct a keyboard problem.

egydiocoelho said:

Can you inform the version of the bios? Sometimes, a bios update can correct a keyboard problem.

BIOS: V1.13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxQE5rm8vMc&t=574s

Is your notebook still under warranty? Have you tried to disassemble the notebook to disconnect and reconnect the keyboard?

egydiocoelho said:

Is your notebook still under warranty? Have you tried to disassemble the notebook to disconnect and reconnect the keyboard?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxQE5rm8vMc&t=574s

Yes it is under warranty. Purchase is just a month back. If I disassemble the notebook that will void the warranty as I may have to remove the seal tag, that I do not want to happen and would prefer to have it opened by Authorised technicians.
Since past 2 days I have started facing new problem - Laptop doesn't turn on at all with any of the keys. I have to reset the battery through the tiny keyhole on the back side and only then Laptop would turn on pressing keys except power button. I have to then place a piece of paper to hold num lock in pressed position for keeping Laptop alive.

mit

NirajN said:

egydiocoelho said:

Is your notebook still under warranty? Have you tried to disassemble the notebook to disconnect and reconnect the keyboard?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxQE5rm8vMc&t=574s

Yes it is under warranty. Purchase is just a month back. If I disassemble the notebook that will void the warranty as I may have to remove the seal tag, that I do not want to happen and would prefer to have it opened by Authorised technicians.
Since past 2 days I have started facing new problem - Laptop doesn't turn on at all with any of the keys. I have to reset the battery through the tiny keyhole on the back side and only then Laptop would turn on pressing keys except power button. I have to then place a piece of paper to hold num lock in pressed position for keeping Laptop alive.

this looks very serious problem , cause now my laptop keyboard is not working too and its of same model . I brought the laptop a week ago. after 3 days the keyboard didn't worked for a day when I turned on it functioned normally and then again the same problem arose . the keyboard has only functioning of power button . I have been using the external USB keyboard .