Keys on laptop's keyboard register duplicate letters intermittantly

Question

I have a brand new (<1 week old) Dell Latitude E6540 with Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) where the occasionally while typing I get a double key press. For example: I am writing a qquestion on superuser.com.

• It is not bound to any particular key, so it is not mechanically broken or anything. There are no signs of damage.
• It does not have its own configuration utility and Windows Device Manager lists the Windows default drivers, "HID Keyboard Device" and "Standard PS/2 Keyboard".
• An external keyboard in lieu of using the built in keyboard is not an option for me.
• Dell forums seems to indicate this was a major problem during with the XPS series between 2010-2011 and most had their keyboards replaced with no success. A user wrote an Autohotkey script which helped a lot of people, but the download links are dead.
• I have tried messing with the "Make the keyboard easier to use" menu in Windows Ease of Access Center in the Control Panel, both Bounce Keys and Repeat Keys and Slow Keys without any success.

What would you try next? Find a replacement driver? Is there some hidden method for debouncing a keyboard?

Solution

The act of replacing the keyboard appears to have fixed the issue. The new keyboard has less bounce and the keys have much less of a clacking sound. It was likely the result of a manufacturing defect.

Comments

[CharlieRB]

Have you contacted Dell? If it's a week old, it's under warranty.

[Ben Mordecai]

Not yet. I'm preferring to avoid it because I've already sunk several days getting a bunch of proprietary software installed, and in the past it wasn't successful, albeit with other models. If I don't get a good solution here, I probably will though.

[Ben Mordecai]

@techie007 Linux Live boot is a brilliant idea.