Gateway Black Keyboards

Usually laptops have black keyboards to match their black cover. However, there are still some silver models of laptop like Gateway laptop M-7301U that has a silver keyboard. So all the letters, numbers and symbols on the keyboard are printed with black ink. Somebody complained that the keys from his Gateway laptop M-7301U keyboard are wearing out and he wonders why.

Well, as far as I know the only possible reason for this wearing out of the keys is the bad quality of the ink used for printing. However, usually Gateway laptops do not have this problem because they use genuine good quality components, so my guess is that the respective person bought the laptop after it had already been used by somebody who replaced the original keyboard with a cheaper one , of a lower quality, made in Hong Kong or something like that. I use a white keyboard for my desktop computer and I have had it for some time – some good years by now, but there never was the slightest sign of wearing out.

And I am using the computer for more than five hours every day. I might add some strange accidents with spilled coffee, kids colouring it with pencils and other surprises, but still the letters and numbers can be seen clearly. And I clean it with cotton and spirits from time to time.

So my advice for this person is to buy another keyboard, as they are not that expensive, somewhere around $20-30, but this time make sure the producer is a reliable one. But if you are not willing to spend any money on this, just use a permanent black marker and the problem is solved. In case the laptop is brand new and still under warranty, it means you were unlucky enough to buy a laptop from a bad lot, so go to the shop and ask for a replacement. It should be shipped to you immediately.

Except for wearing out, sometimes there may be other problems with laptop keyboards. The most frequent one is when only one or two of the keys get damaged by an unfortunate accident ( a kid with a hammer ) and you just don’t want to replace it all for only one or two missing pieces.

Well, the good news is that I found a couple of online stores that sell only the keys that you need for the laptop model that you want. Just eneter the web sites (www.ebay.ca and www.laptopkey.com) and choose the laptop brand and model and choose the letters or numbers you need on your kes. Each key will cost about $4-5 and they are sent together with the rubber and retainer clip that fixes each key to the keyboard.

If you want to order the whole keyboard for your Gateway laptop M-7301U, here are some web sites that can help you: www.sunvalleyus.com, www.laptoppartsexpert.com .

You can replace the keys or the entire keyboard by yourself, as it is pretty easy. You just need a screwdriver and some engineering skills and maybe a helpful tutorial to guide you every step of the way.1

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