Finding yourself in need of a new laptop keyboard can be a pretty big annoyance in its own right. Nevertheless, things are often compounded even further by the seemingly-daunting job of finding out the product number for the keyboard itself, in order to arrange the required replacement.

So shy of ripping your machine to pieces and possibly making things worse than they already are, how can you go about finding a laptop keyboard’s model number?

Be Specific

Well, first of all it’s important to be specific, as while it may appear as though simply going off a description of the keyboard would work, a great many VERY different Dell keyboards look near-identical. As such, you need to make sure the product is identified very specifically, in order to avoid further problems.

More often than not, the best way of going about things is to look for the exact model number of the machine itself, from which the exact keyboard type can then be determined. This is normally situated close to or actually on the barcode label itself (found on all Dell hardware). The Dell part number can be found in the 6 digits following the two-digit country prefix, indicating the country of manufacture.

Making Sense of Serial Numbers

The part number you’re looking for is always the 5 digits after the country prefix and the first zero. So it would be as follows:

• CN = Country Prefix (China) – this part was made in China.
• -0 = Ignore the first zero following the country prefix.
• YW6W9 = This is the Dell Part number we would be looking for.
• 65890-4CI-500J = This is the unique part of the serial number that would be different on every Dell Model.
• -A00 = This is the revision of the part.

The vast majority of Dell parts are made in China, so most of the serial numbers will start with CN-0.

There are however also:

• TH-0 = Thailand
• KR-0 = South Korea
• JP-0 = Japan
• US-0 = United States

Armed with this product number, you will easily be able to pinpoint the exact keyboard you need in accordance with the machine in question.

In terms of the information we would require from a customer making a query, definitely the “YW6W9” part of the above example, and possibly the revision “A00” in this case if specifically in need of the same or newer revision of a part.

On the ITC website, the part number is at the end of the product title.

For more information on replacement laptop parts or to discuss an order, call the ITC Sales team today on 03333 222 200.