Attacking a laptop

[#1]

I have an old laptop with Windows XP on it.
It's keyboard has a strong preference for typing multiple mmmmmmmmmmmmmm's and nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn's
I'm pretty sure this is due to the quantity of crumbs embedded inside the keyboard.
It's latterly shown a tendency to say the ethernet cable is unplugged:-
PXE-E61 Media test failure....
PXE-M0F Exiting PXE ROM
Luckily the Wireless still works.
I have given the keyboard a gentle bashing - is it reasonably easy to get to the keyboard on a laptop
without having to bore through the motherboard?
I want to bash it quite hard.
It's a Toshiba Satellite A110-42
I've never opened a laptop before - only proper PC's
I'm also going to try a Linux Live CD, in case it contains a better keyboard driver 
All help gratefully accepted...

[#2]

Should be able to remove the keycaps. You then may be able to see if the you need to go further as the problem could be limited between the cap and switch and not the swich itself.

[#3]

Either get a can of compressed air to blow out the crumbs or as itsme says the keys will just be clip on.

[#4]

I'll give the keycaps a bash (literally) when I've backed up any wanted data.
Unfortunately the kids use the laptop; their is several years of accumulated debris.
I really need a high-pressure water jet - or similar.

[#5]

if you take off the keycaps, they will 1, fly all over the place, never to be seen again and 2, will be impossible to return to their place.
i find the best method is to turn the laptop upside down (open) and slap the bottom.  then turn it the right way up and use canned air on it.

[#6]

Quote from: artificer

if you take off the keycaps, they will 1, fly all over the place, never to be seen again and 2, will be impossible to return to their place.

Never had that issue myself on the three laptops I've done it on.

[#7]

If you want to remove the keyboard here are the destructions

[#8]

Now I know why I've never attempted to open a laptop!
Why don't they just weld the thing together and have done with it 

[#9]

Actually changing hard drives and memory is quite easy on laptops these days.
I am considering stripping a HP laptop with a view to repairing the power supply socket on the motherboard. I am looking for a good strip down guide before I attempt that though!

[#10]

It is not actually that hard. My Dell C400 is much the same - gently lever off  the plastic panel above the keyboard, then undo a row of screws along the top and out she comes.

[#11]

All this "gently levering of of flimsy bits of plastic" ought to be replaced by a couple of decent screws.

[#12]

which is what you need to put in after you break of most of the plastic clips

[#13]

You could try using a "quarter inch" Flat artist brush with stiff bristles....  if you manage to get a few bristles removed, to make it thinner, then you might just be able to squeeze them under the keys to dislodge the crumbs with jam/marmalade/marmite still attached....  follow this by the "upside down" treatment aforementioned, and finish up with the compressed air..... (you could take it to the local garage and try the air line on it !....  but NOT the jetwash! ! !)

[#14]

Actually, I've just managed to give it a fresh battering, followed by scraping it with an old dried-up glue brush!
A couple of the key caps came loose, but I managed to press them back down - and it now (touch wood) seems to be working.
I've removed about 15GB of unwanted games - but it's still got about 60GB of rubbish on it.
It seems that every time M$ issue a patch, upgrade, service pack etc it gets added to the disk!
Thankfully M$ have just stopped "supporting" XP - although I must admit I didn't bother with most of their updates.
I'm planning on loading a small Linux partition, so that I can rsync this rubbish via wireless to a NAS device.

[#15]

Yeah, it has a tendency to keep the uninstallers for all the patches etc.
If you are happy that your system is stable, and you won't want to uninstall them in future, you can simply delete the uninstallers.
Don't forget to give it a once-over with something like CCleaner once in a while too.