[CraigWS]

The other day I was typing in a email address and I went to use my right shift key and it did not work. It was working earlier that day. I might have pressed a different combo of keys and not the r-shift and the @ sign. Now my right shift will not capitalize any thing, but when I press r-shift and w it will still close out applications. The left works fine. I have tried turning on/off sticky key, reinstalling drivers, and I just did a clean install of windows and no luck. Any clues or suggestions will be great. I have a Dell 1200 Inspiron Laptop.

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Hi CraigWS, welcome to G2G.

Sorry to say but it sounds like a defective keyboard. You can check this by downloading one of the Linux Live CDs, like Puppy Linux. It's an iso image of a bootable CD. Create the CD from the iso file then boot it. Once booted, try all the keys on the keyboard and see which, if any, do not work.

If any, then it is the keyboard and you will have to replace it. You can usually find a laptop keyboard on the internet for$30 to $40 (plus shipping). They are easy to replace and often come with explicit directions. If not, the Dell web site has the service manual in PDF format that you can download.

[Ztruker]

Hi CraigWS, welcome to G2G.

Sorry to say but it sounds like a defective keyboard. You can check this by downloading one of the Linux Live CDs, like Puppy Linux. It's an iso image of a bootable CD. Create the CD from the iso file then boot it. Once booted, try all the keys on the keyboard and see which, if any, do not work.

If any, then it is the keyboard and you will have to replace it. You can usually find a laptop keyboard on the internet for$30 to $40 (plus shipping). They are easy to replace and often come with explicit directions. If not, the Dell web site has the service manual in PDF format that you can download.