Troubleshooting diner's laptop keyboard

I checked on my friend Nick today, at Alexandra's Bistro (f.k.a. Blue Anchor Restaurant) for a delicious lunch special. While we talked it came up that the letter "r" on his laptop keyboard does not work. I told him I'd have a look at it after the fresh black coffee I was consuming on the private veranda (read: blacktop parking lot). Patrons started arriving and we went inside, he on the grill, I on the laptop. A quick button pressing to test all the keys, revealed that 3 keys where actually not working, a sign to me that the Toshiba laptop keyboard has a bad connection and probably needs replacing. The keys where "~" "r" and "[left-alt]". Since most of the places he visits on the internet are .gr domains, the Hellenic/Greek domains, I wrote on a piece of paper the ASCII code for the letter "r" for him, namely "[right-alt]114" and taped it on his laptop. So, by him pressing the right-

ALT key, and while the key is pressed use the keypad to enter 114 and then release ALT, the lower case "r" appears. Problem solved! Additionally, a new laptop keyboard would cost him $100+shipping. So I proposed a $10 USB keyboard from Staples or Office Max, and a piece of Luan wood platform to cover the defective keyboard but not the touch-pad.