Layouts and guides

Pick the board in front of you, or read what the result means.

Test by layout

• Full size keyboard test All 104 keys, the number pad included. Press each one and the cap sinks; anything that stays up never reached the browser.
• TKL keyboard test Eighty-seven keys: everything a full size board has except the number pad.
• 65% keyboard test Compact, but it keeps the arrows. Press every key, including the right-hand column most people never check.
• 60% keyboard test Sixty-one keys and nothing else. Everything the board dropped now lives on a layer.
• ISO keyboard test The UK and European layout, with the tall Enter and the extra key beside the left Shift.
• Mac keyboard test For a MacBook or a Magic Keyboard, including the modifiers macOS handles differently from Windows.

Troubleshooting

• Keyboard ghosting test Hold several keys at once. If one of them stops reporting, your keyboard cannot see that combination.
• N-key rollover test Hold down as many keys as your fingers allow. The counter tells you how many your keyboard is willing to report at the same time.
• Key chatter test One press, two characters. Chatter is a switch problem, and it is one of the few keyboard faults that gets worse over time.
• How to find a stuck key A key held down without you touching it explains a surprising number of computer problems.
• Keyboard keys not working Which keys failed tells you more than the fact that they failed. Test first, then read the pattern.
• Keyboard key codes Every key press gives a browser three different values. They mean different things, and only one of them is about the physical key.
• Laptop keyboard test Testing a built-in keyboard is the same job with two extra complications: the Fn layer and the fact that a repair means the whole assembly.
• Wireless keyboard test On a wireless keyboard, most faults that look like broken keys are really the link between the keyboard and the computer.
• Arrow keys not working Arrow keys fail for two reasons nobody expects: Scroll Lock in a spreadsheet, and Num Lock on a compact board.
• Function keys not working Usually the function keys are fine and the top row is simply in media mode.
• Number pad not working Nine times in ten it is Num Lock, and the tenth is an accessibility setting nobody turned on deliberately.
• How to clean a keyboard Most dead and sticking keys are a cleaning job rather than a repair, provided the cleaning is done the right way round.