Issue:

The spacebar key on my HP ZBook Fury has lost its normal tactile feel. It feels mushy, soft, and unresponsive when pressed, especially compared to the surrounding keys. The key still registers input, but the bounce-back and key travel are off.

Questions:

1. Is this issue typically caused by accumulated dust/debris, a misaligned metal stabilizer bar, or a failing rubber dome under the keycap?
2. What is the safest technique to unclip the spacebar keycap on this specific ZBook chassis without snapping the plastic scissor hinges or damaging the wire clips underneath?

Some keyboard keys don't click correctly.

Some keyboard keys don't click correctly and require pressing harder or more than once.

⟐ Answered February 17, 2026 at 11:33 MST

⟐ Commented November 26, 2025 at 7:07 MST

⟐ Answered August 09, 2024 at 15:07 MST

Note: the laptop does boot sometimes, if I don't try to power it on for maybe an hour it will boot. When it boots after maybe two minutes I get a blue screen: DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION. I also can get into BIOS.

I await your responses, I will clarify whatever questions you may have, friends.

⟐ Commented July 24, 2023 at 3:45 MST

Any ideas on how to get this rectified would be appreciated as these laptops are not cheap, and having a BIOS password is not ideal!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far! :) I no longer have this HP Zbook G2, but hopefully these steps will go some way to helping other people that have this issue!

@ruggb - HP’s BIOS passwords are stored in non volatile memory that isn’t cleared once you’ve reset the BIOS battery (yes I did check this). HP themselves are useless and no longer supply the files required to reset the BIOS. They recommend an entire new motherboard, which obviously isn’t going to happen.

Now if you have the correct tools for the job, you can use a hot air/reflow station to remove the BIOS chips from the motherboard, and use a programmer to re-program the BIOS, but I don’t have the equipment to do this at present.

@sunflowerthomas removing the CMOS battery didn’t work for me. I tried that, to no avail.

Guy Fawkes - I would have tried this if I still had the laptop. Unfortunately I don’t have the laptop anymore, and I would alos have to load two operating systems onto the machine (windows 7 & 10). Having a M.2 adapter definitely helps (but I didn’t have one when I had the laptop). It might work - I’ll bear this in mind if I ever come across a BIOS locked laptop in the future. (The laptop still booted, but I couldn’t change the boot order, or boot off any external device.)

⟐ Commented June 23, 2023 at 6:26 MST

⟐ Answer accepted June 19, 2020 at 6:36 MST