Sorry, never have had any problems with the physical keboard on my DVP so I don't have any suggestions as to how to fix your problem but, I do find that, in my case, I just don't use it as much now as I used to back when I first got the phone (the virtual keyboard is plenty good enough for me most of the time). So, I'd say that if you are out of warranty then, just use the on screen keyboard and ignore the physical keyboard.