W & R key not working / changing hotkeys?

I have a HP Mini 110 and from day 1 had many problems. This time the W and later on also the R keys don't work... quite inconvenient. I have been researching the entire internet and tried a lot. I cleaned the laptop, also internally (got it all open); I did a full system recovery; I got the battery out, held the 'on-key for 30 second and hit escape when restarting and then pressed F10 to get some kind of recovery start-up; I tried rebooting stuff with the keyboard; Changed languages bla bla bla... No luck. Going to a technician is expensive, and I rather replace the whole laptop then. But for now, I try to find a temporary solution.

I was thinking now to change the keys. For example I never use the ~key or +key, why not turn these into the W and R? Or maybe make a hotkey, like CTRL+1 for W and CTRL+2 for R. But... how? I simply can't find it anywhere and HP helpdesk (both online, on the phane AND in-store) is a classic example of terrible customer service.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.