Laptop keyboard stopped working

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rb99

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#288965 3-Aug-2021 18:26

As per the above, no 3 midget comes home from school saying the keyboard on his laptop isn't working. Says he's been gentle. Its a Lenovo E14, about 17 months old. When you power on the keys all illuminate briefly and after that no illumination and typing does nothing. Trackpad works though. Have tried powering off and on and tried uninstalling the keyboard PS2 driver, which reinstalled on restarting, as expected, but still no joy. An external usb keyboard works fine.

Any thoughts maybe, hopefully along the lines of 'you just have to...'

Looked at a YT video - doesn't look very easily replaceable to me.

It is out of Guarantee. Think Lenovo will cooperate ? It was bought online. Might it be a CGA thing and do Lenovo cooperate with that kind of thing ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

michelangelonz

115 posts

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#2754825 3-Aug-2021 21:19

I had this happen to me on my HP Envy X360.

It turned out to be a Windows update issue. See if an update has been applied recently perhaps?

Ge0rge

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#2754830 3-Aug-2021 22:00

Have you tried accessing the bios? That could quickly rule out a Windows issue vs a hardware fault.

mugs2000

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#2754914 4-Aug-2021 09:53

I have a Lenovo 100e series 1 where the keyboard stopped working.

By undoing the screws underneath and removing the bottom cover, I was able to re-locate the ribbon cable where it connects to the main board. In this instance it fixed the problem. Perhaps you could try doing the same thing.

1101

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#2754975 4-Aug-2021 12:09

You could try for CGA repair . They could just say its due to rough use or liquid spillage .
Otherwise, send it to a laptop repair specialist . They can often install new kb's very cheaply and have access to better priced parts

Theres allways a chance theres some other hardware fault , eg liquid split on/in is quite common reason for total kb fails , so may need more repairs than just the kb

rb99

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#2755033 4-Aug-2021 12:53

Thanks people...

I tried applying any Windows updates, but there was I think only one, so it seemed to be fairly up to date. Haven't check if there were any just before the problem started though.

Also haven't looked in bios yet. I guess the idea is to see if the keyboard works while I'm in the bios ?

If I'm brave I'll take the back off. If there's something obvious then great, but looking on YouTube it seems you have to pretty much remove everything to get at the actual keyboard (and maybe its connectors...)

Just looking at it, didn't see any signs of water or sticky residue anywhere, but need to check further.

Will see again later on, he took laptop to school today despite the keyboard, for some reason...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

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#2755238 4-Aug-2021 19:22

It seems like going into the bios has (so far, touch wood) fixed things. All I did in the bios (were the keyboard, or at least a few arrows and Enter, did seem to work), was try going to the keyboard section and changing a few settings, non of which were keyboard related, more trackpad related I think, and then change them back again. After that Save and Exit. And now the keyboard seems AOK. Maybe the Save and Exit did something.

Thanks for all the help. Hope I'm not back again with a 'spoke too soon' type comment...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

Rickles

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#2755518 5-Aug-2021 10:28

Sort of sounds like food or drink incursion to me 😁

My daughter had similar problem once, and it came partially right next day presumably because stuff had either dried or shifted.

I held it upside down and used a soft paint brush to get between the keys, then ran a vacuum cleaner over it (not full power). I then liberally sprayed isopropyl into the keys and worked the keys like a piano player, then left it all night.

It's been fine now for several months 😜