Dell Inspiron 2-1 keyboard randomly stops working (Windows 11)

(also posted in the Dell subreddit)

for a while now my laptop keyboard has been randomly disconnecting and all keys stop working. the on-screen touch keyboard works if i tap something with text entry but there's no functionality in the keyboard.

it sometimes fixes itself after closing the laptop for like a minute multiple times, but sometimes it only gets fixed after restarting. and sometimes it'll go days or weeks without doing it at all, but then when it does it'll usually do it multiple times within the hour.

i don't know much about computers and i'm struggling to find out how to actually fix this issue. there are no driver updates available and i definitely cannot afford to replace it. i'm not sure what else to do. a lot of things i see to try online are super technical and i couldn't really understand what i was reading.

does anyone have any tips? i'm worried it's purely a physical issue.

also, it was suggested this may be related to tab mode somehow but it doesn’t seem to be entering tablet mode when this happens because the taskbar doesn’t change, and i was going to try disabling tablet mode but that’s not an option for windows 11.