laptop keyboard issues

[Jason]

 >>  Before I send my laptop into Dell for 2 weeks and lose all my work flow, I
 >>  
 >>  want to know if anyone has seen or experienced this. While typing the 
 >>  keyboard suddenly begins repeating keys until any other key is pressed. It
 >>  is 
 >>  completely random when it does it and it could be any key it feels like.

 >>  My BIOS (Inspiron 700m) doesn't allow key-repeat changing. I disabled key 
 >>  repeating in KDE and that seems to have fixed the problem, but life is 
 >>  difficult when you can't repeat an arrow key... try it sometime for kicks
 >>  or 
 >>  as a cruel joke to a co-worker (hey, great April 1 joke, turn off
 >>  key-repeat 
 >>  on every machine in the office...)

 >>  I read somewhere that this is a kernel bug but not quite sure. Anyone
 >>  familiar 
 >>  with this event?

It's possible that it's a bug in KDE, not necessarily a kernel bug. I wouldn't suspect it's hardware or kernel related, personally. If you disabled in KDE and it's "not occurring" anymore, then the problem is most-likely KDE with that particular keyboard layout. You can always try a different layout (102 key instead of 104 key or whatever) to see if the problem "resolves itself." I definitely wouldn't send it back to Dell....in the long run, they will say "We don't support Linux, works fine in Windows. Oh, BTW, you lost all your data." 

--> To change keyboard layout, click on KDE button, select Control Center, Select Regional and Accessibility, Keyboard Layout. 

Oh, on a side note...have you taken a blower to the keyboard and shook it out? (While the system is off, turn the laptop upside down and use a can of air on the keyboard along with shaking the system to dislodge any possible crumbs...etc.) I only say this because it actually could be some small item lodged between a key which could be shorting the board. The item could move around every time you transport the laptop and that is why it occurs in different areas...etc. 


Sincerely,

Jason Spatafore