Wierd Problem, possibly stuck key on laptop

This problem is quite odd, and I will try to explain it as best as possible. I grabbed my wife's laptop the other day and tried to install the game civilization 2 on it. The laptop has XP Home SP3. I noticed that the =/+ key was popped up a little bit so I pushed it back on. So the game installed fine, but whenever I was in the city edit screen it would pop up with an error. You can view the error here.

So I decided to install Virtual PC and a Windows 98 installation. When I run Win98 in Virtual PC the = key continues to be typed. When I am in XP there is no problem with the key, except the possibility of it having to do with the game problems.

 

try popping out the key again (gently) with a flat head and place it aside, see if it still does the same thing, if so try cleaning the slot with a cloth ( if you're valiant use a bit of water with the cloth) and check again, if that doesnt work try reinstalling the keyboard driver, if nothing still im out of ideas Xd, best of luck

 

Still no luck after removing the key and cleaning it out. The stuck = sign only shows up in 98 virtual machine. Not in XP.

 

could be an actual gel layer fault .. try a usb keyboard and see what that does.

 

and that would only show up in 98 and not xp? I don't have access to a usb keyboard. Also how would i disable the built in keyboard on the laptop?

 

uninstall the driver ( right click on my computer then hardware then device manager) look for the keyboard (im not to sure where it would be) and click uninstall, turn OFF the laptop, and physically remove the ribbon cable and restart the pc, you can then connect the usb keyboard and try that, newegg.com has some very cheap prices, also as varnull said

the gel layer might be broken which would involve you having to buy a replacement keyboard

 

Sorry to bump and old thread but I found a fix for this problem, and wanted to share it with community in case anyone needs it in the future. This problem with = key being quasi stuck is common with some Dell Laptops. It seems to affect the Inspiron 1501 and the Vostro 1000. Maybe others too.

To fix this you need to download the BIOS update from Dell's website. After installing it shut down your computer. Remove power cord from computer and the wall. Remove battery. Press and hold power button for 3 seconds, 3 times. Connect everything and when you start up the issue should be resolved.