Toshiba Satellite A55 keyboard usually doesnt work.,,

My brothers laptop a Toshiba Satellite A55 will on occasion have odd keyboard problems. Usually he will log on fine, perhaps start homework but soon his keyboard will go out, it wont accept any inputs, but every so often you can get a key to go through. And alot less often I can get it to accept maybe 10 keys. Obviously as its a laptop he doesnt want to lug an external keyboard around so he is asking me for advice. So in turn im asking on here. I havnt checked the Toshiba site, but i have googled alot. There are way too many links to wade through where people are selling keyboards and the like so Im turning to you. is this a driver issue? or maybe a loose connection? He has had it for just less than a year. Any help would be great.