2011 MBA 13" — keyboard not working

[amp!]

I have a 2011 MBA 13" 4GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5.

For the past few months, the top row of letters, from "Q" to "O", work intermittently or not at all. Four of the five vowels (e, i, o, u) are on the top row, so the buttons get a lot of use and it is infuriating when they give up.

Sometimes I type and the letters come out as expected. Often these days, I type and nothing at all appears on the screen. Other times, the letters come out but not in the order I typed.

This leads me to suspect that this is a software rather than a hardware issue, but I'm not sure.

I'm aware of the recent butterfly keyboard issues but I'm surprised that something similar is happening to a 2011 machine.

Has anyone else experienced this? Can they shed light on what's happening here?

Thanks.

 

[Audit13]

Does it work well with an external keyboard? Was it ever exposed to moisture?

 

[amp!]

Haven't tried an external keyboard.

Sometimes it's been left in the trunk of my car overnight. Maybe there's been damp/condensation there?

 

[Audit13]

If a warm metal object is exposed to cool air, especially in a confined space, it's possible for condensation to form inside and cause corrosion.

I suggest removing the bottom cover and looking for signs of corrosion.

 

[smokesletsgo]

I have the exact machine and the exact issue. If you're patient enough and don't want to upgrade just yet, it will go away eventually For me it started about a year ago, now for 2 or 3 months it's fixed on it's own. Most likely it's humidity issue, try too keep it dry and clean from the inside. And while you have this issue to make the keys come back for some time I'd used to mash all the keys from q to o and they would come back and work fine untill next time, usually untill reboot or wake up from sleep.