CB311-9H Chromebook has dead keys after only a few days of use

Bridger713

For some reason the 't' and 'y' keys on my daughters CB311-9H Chromebook have stopped working after less than two weeks of use. 

I did a 'Powerwash' (factory reset), but it didn't fix the problem.

I tried to do a hardware reset, but holding 'reload' and tapping power doesn't appear to do anything. It just appears to power on as normal, and the 't' and 'y' keys still don't work. There doesn't appear to be a reset button anywhere, and the battery isn't removable.

I haven't tried reloading Chrome OS yet.

Any ideas? I suspect the keyboard has a hardware fault (how the heck do two keys randomly fail?), but I want to see if there's any other quick solutions before I go through the warranty process.

This is the second CB311-9H we've had problems with. The first one we purchased for her went completely dead after only a few hours of use, wouldn't even respond to the charger. I'm okay with one failure, but two brand new Chromebooks suffering failures? This is getting pretty ridiculous.

billsey

Yeah, that's weird... Two keys right together like that tend to point at potentially a spill, with some contaminant getting between the layers of film, causing them to lose conductivity when pressed together. If it were a defect in the layer itself then the keys affected wouldn't be adjacent, and would likely be a set of four different ones. What does Acer support say?

Bridger713

billsey said:

Yeah, that's weird... Two keys right together like that tend to point at potentially a spill, with some contaminant getting between the layers of film, causing them to lose conductivity when pressed together. If it were a defect in the layer itself then the keys affected wouldn't be adjacent, and would likely be a set of four different ones. What does Acer support say?

Normally I would agree with your assessment, it was my first thought, however I'm not aware of anything spilling on it.

My daughter was only allowed to use it under supervision, and she was not allowed to have any food or drink at the table while the chromebook was out; it was set away from the table for snacks and meals. Obviously I can't guarantee she never snuck a drink while left unattended for a few minutes, but I never saw any evidence of a spill on the device.

StevenGen

Bridger713 said:

billsey said:

Yeah, that's weird... Two keys right together like that tend to point at potentially a spill, with some contaminant getting between the layers of film, causing them to lose conductivity when pressed together. If it were a defect in the layer itself then the keys affected wouldn't be adjacent, and would likely be a set of four different ones. What does Acer support say?

Normally I would agree with your assessment, it was my first thought, however I'm not aware of anything spilling on it.

My daughter was only allowed to use it under supervision, and she was not allowed to have any food or drink at the table while the chromebook was out; it was set away from the table for snacks and meals. Obviously I can't guarantee she never snuck a drink while left unattended for a few minutes, but I never saw any evidence of a spill on the device.

If your CB311-9H Chromebook is new? Then the keyboard is covered under warranty, send your CB311-9H Chromebook back to Acer as they will replace the keyboard for a new one. I’ve had that happen and Acer replaced the keyboard with a new one, don't touch it and don’t do anything, as and if any keys don't work, then its either a matter of the keyboard circuit is faulty or the key mechanism is defective.