How to go about fixing an Ergodox issue that started happening suddenly

[eduardo]

I have on Ergodox from around 2014. It was hooked to a computer that I hadn't used in 6 months.

When I tried to use it the keyboard didn't work. After disconnecting and connecting it, after some random amount of time, a string of characters are input in random fashion.

If I were to have an editor open, you could see that these characters would be in the row of ZXCVB. Also, on this row I have my ALT key mapped. The ALT key seems to be stuck in a pressed state, since clicking on something opens the OS contextual menu.

After this happens, my only option is to reconnect the keyboard. And the circle starts again.

That this misbehavior only happens on that row makes me think it is something physical with the keyboard and not something related to the firmware (since this has been working fine for years).

Can anybody share the steps to debug this issue? I don't know if I should be first testing continuity (and where), reflashing, resoldering, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Sup]

I had a keyboard that suddenly typed out gibberish with some keys after reflashing it worked again. Couldn't hurt to reflash. Maybe a diode gave out and needs to be reflowed?

You could test this with a multimeter probably but, i don't have any experience with it.

[tricheboars]

my ergo doxes all died after around 6 years or so. i went through 2 of them and then i decided to ascend to the HHKB and im honestly loving it.

i soldered and made my ergo doxes along with many other keyboards over the years. the ergo doxes are the only ones to die. i blame the headphone cable connectors for my first one's death. also both my ergo doxes had mini USB which sucked.