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Question from Jamie: Hi, Rick. I have an old Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop that has several missing and broken keys (don’t ask lol).
The rest of the laptop works fine, but the keyboard is unusable.
Do you think it can be replaced? And if it can, will it be an expensive repair?
I’ve been using Linux on this machine for years and I’d hate to give it up unless I absolutely have to.
Thanks for your help!
Rick’s answer: Jamie, most any laptop keyboard can be replaced, but some models are easier and cheaper to replace than others. Luckily for you, the keyboard in the Dell Inspiron 1545 is one of the easiest to replace, hands-down. And the job will also cost you very little in my opinion.
First, you need to purchase a replacement keyboard. As you’ll soon see, you can pick one up on Amazon for just a few bucks.
Click here to see a list of replacement keyboards for the Inspiron 1545 on Amazon.
As luck would have it, replacing the keyboard in this particular laptop is relatively easy. Just remember that if you decide to do it yourself, you’ll be assuming all responsibility should something go wrong (which is always a very real possibility).
If you don’t feel completely comfortable doing the job yourself, a qualified PC technician can easily do it for you.
If you’d like to give it a try yourself, this great video from our friends over at Parts-People.com shows how to do it, step-by-step:
To get an idea of how difficult it will be to replace the keyboard in a different laptop, simply visit YouTube and search for the brand and model of your laptop followed by the words “replace keyboard”.
That’s all there is to it, Jamie. Good luck!