Score:0

Laptop keyboard gets frozen randomly

jp flag

Keyboard gets frozen randomly without being able to recover on an Ubuntu 20.04 (upgraded from 18.04). I am not sure what is causing it since it could happen by using different browsers. I have noticed that normally happens when I am using a browser.

This is on a Dell Latitude E6520 with backlit keyboard and when the problem appears it is lit. If a plug an external USB keyboard (not wireless) I can type and the keyboard is recognized, maybe because it is loaded when anew device is plugged.

touchpad on the laptop is still working and the mouse pointer moves and works normally. Nothing else seems to fail, using the mouse pointer I can still clicking on the screen and select options, one of them is restart the machine every time this happens.

Anyway, how could I track what issue could have happened at that point? What's the log file I could check to find out what happened?

Thank you in advance for any help on this.

heynnema avatar
ru flag
Edit your question and show me `free -h` and `swapon -s` and `sysctl vm.swappiness`. Also `sudo dmidecode -s bios-version`.
Sadaharu Wakisaka avatar
pl flag
Welcome to AskUbuntu, what is the model/maker name of your external keyboard?
jp flag
@heynnema: Here is the information: $ free -h total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 7.7Gi 1.5Gi 3.1Gi 381Mi 3.0Gi 5.5Gi Swap: 2.0Gi 0B 2.0Gi $ swapon -s Filename Type Size Used Priority /swapfile file 2097148 0 -2 $ sysctl vm.swappiness vm.swappiness = 60 $ sudo dmidecode -s bios-version A06
jp flag
@Sadaharu Wakisaka . The problem is with the laptop keyboard. The external keyboard works after the laptop keyboard freezes, but that might be that a new USB (external keyboard) was plugged. Computer is a Dell Latitude E6520 laptop. External keyboard is Dell.
heynnema avatar
ru flag
Please see my answer. If it helps to solve the problem, please remember to accept it by clicking on the checkmark icon that appears just to the left of my answer. Thanks!
Score:1
ru flag

BIOS

Dell Latitude E6520

You have a very old BIOS version A06 from 30 Aug 2011. BIOS A22 from 17 Jan 2019 is available here.

Note: Confirm that I have the correct web page for your Service Tag #

Note: Have good backups before updating the BIOS

Score:0
pl flag

Reasons: an old laptop input device becomes unusable?

  1. Drivers in the OS removed accidentally.
  2. Hydrolysis
  3. Electrolysis Capacitor failure

blooted_capacitor

Dell laptops around 2010-15 are quite well designed. I have two E6230s using since Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

#1 Happens rarely than others but if this happens we need to go back the version of OS when it worked and upgrade without losing the module.
#2 Cheap plastic is vulnerable to heat and humidity, it goes really bad in the place without ventilation.
#3 All the electric machines contains capacitors and especially electrolysis ones are easy to fail than other parts. It is inevitable but older electric machines made in Europe/US or Japan still works fine, e.g. HP-15C or CASIO fx-260. Some electrolysis capacitors are badly made in particular places/companies.

My E6230 went through all these and last year one stormy day, I forgot left it connected to the outlet and it got lightning surge a little bit. Esc and Right click buttons are dead since then.

You can buy a new computer, dude, I think Dell E7250 or Latitude 15 3550 are good, too. They are only 7 year-old...

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