backspace & delete key not working

[barrowhill]

Hope someone can help.

In possession of MEDION Laptop running Vista Home Premium belonging to a
friend which went "haywire" Apparantly Delete Key won't work. I was advised
on startup it was "deleting everything" - ask if you want to delete but
couldn't say no. They restored to 2 weeks previously and said alright for 20
mins then started again.

They use AOL and when this opened when you click anything asks you do you
want to delete then just does it..

Now I use cable and open in IE7, I find both backspace and delete keys not
working i.e type into search or address bar and nither key functions to make
corrections. Ditto in Office or Works applications.

I'm not receiving any onscreen messages re deleting !(!) Ran virus scan OK
ran Spybot and detected RegistryFix among others. Deleted these, reran and
appears clean.

Is there a hardware problem with Keyboard or has there been a subtle key
re-assigment

[Richard G. Harper]

Given the past behaviour ("stuck delete key") I'd guess the keyboard is
damaged.

With most laptops you cannot repair on a per-key-basis. It requires a
keyboard replacement.

Yep, that would have been my best guess. Hey wait, it WAS my best guess!

hopefully a replacement is available. Notebook keyboards are not easily
repairable.

[barrowhill]

Manged to get hands on USB Keyboard. DEL and backspace OK using this so
looks like laptop has a problem associated with these keys. I've removed
caps and "cleaned" to remove debris but still same. As you say, keyboard
probably damaged in some way

[hms2424]

I have a similar problem with a brand new Toshiba laptop. I would normally highlight a line of text and either press delete or backspace, or type new text. None of these functions work either in the url line, or in an email. Then suddenly the line may delete after several attempts - but often I have to reposition the cursor and manually backspace. Is this a software issue with Vista or is it my hardware?

[drk]

I'm having the same problem on a new Dell with Vista and Word 2007. Highlight backspace doesn't work. Highlight Delete only works occasionally.