Help! My laptop keyboard suddenly stopped working

[rockymountaindem]

One moment it was working and now it's not. I must have pressed the wrong button or something, but I don't know how to turn it back on. The touchpad isn't working either. I have a mouse though. What should I do?

[reyd reid reed]

1. How'd you post?

[rockymountaindem]

2. From my desktop

[reyd reid reed]

7. Now why didn't I think of that?

[jobycom]

3. Check the little blue alternate symbols on your keys, probably on the

function keys. See if any of them are shaped like a keyboard. If so, hold down the blue "Fn" key and press the little keyboard key.

If there is no little keyboard key, it may be something else. But a lot of laptops allow you to shut off the keyboard and attach an external keyboard, and that's usually how. Same with the mouse.

[rockymountaindem]

4. No, that didn't work

Thanks for trying though. I guess since the keyboard is off that isn't working either. The control panel says it's working properly though. Something is definitely wrong

[jobycom]

9. Have you tried finding the manufacturer's website?

Usually there are forums. You can see if someone else has had that problem. Might be a simple function of the computer you haven't found yet, or it could be a malfunction. Check the manual, first, under keyboard, and see if it says anything.

You say the external mouse still works, right? So it's not the monitor that's jammed up?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. I recently repaired a laptop whose keyboard had stopped

It turned out to be a virus.

Reboot into safe mode and see if it works there. If it does, then do a virus scan and install Spybot (google for it- it's free). It can be installed and run from safe mode.

[rockymountaindem]

8. I'm scanning now, but I don't want to turn my computer off

It's password protected, and if the keyboard isn't working then I won't be able to press F12 to go into safe mode.

[deadparrot]

6. My touchpad went out a while ago.

Then it was on-and-off for a while. A couple weeks ago, I brought it in for repairs, and I should have it back by tomorrow or Tuesday.

[rockymountaindem]

10. kick

[Lex]

11. My Dell laptop did that once and I googled up a fix on a Dell

forum and it worked.

Seems like I had to unplug my laptop, take out the battery for a couple of minutes. Put the battery back in, plug it in, and reboot it.

It worked.