“Help, laptop keyboard doesn’t work!” – This is one of the most common sentences about computer equipment that we can come across on the Internet. Despite the evolving technique, there is no perfect equipment that would not have faults. In this article, we’ll try to suggest the best way to address a problem with a broken keyboard.
Table of Contents
Laptop keyboard not working – what to do?
First of all, you need to locate the cause of the problem. If your portable equipment is old, it is possible that the keyboard has already retired. In many cases, however, it is not the laptop’s age that will be the problem, but the usual malice of inanimate objects. For problems with the keyboard, check the system, keyboard shortcuts that lock / unlock the keyboard, and consult the rest of the household members who have access to the equipment.
Also Read : The keyboard is not working properly, how to unlock the laptop keyboard?
Hello, family, what have you done with my laptop?
If you are not the only person in your home who uses your laptop, you should make sure that when using it by another person, no undesirable things happen. This is especially true for children and the elderly. As a rule, this group of users has the biggest problem with admitting guilt, and in addition often do not know that they did something wrong. This applies to pressing shortcuts or the so-called “Clicking” on inappropriate options in the system, for example when playing or learning about the equipment. They often turn off the laptop and pretend they don’t know anything.
Mechanical injuries of equipment – bumps, falls and flooding
A bit different matter is random accidents, which can be caused by a laptop. It is mainly about mechanical damage resulting from the fault of users. Ask the other household members if your equipment has fallen, “accidentally” hit something or was even stepped on in your absence.
Another cause of damage to the laptop keyboard may be flooding. Both adults and children have a habit of eating and drinking at the computer. While eating on a laptop is incorrect from a physiological point of view (we eat too much, we do not focus on food), no one condemns drinking drinks. Coffee at work on a computer or tea for a movie – the most classic. Unfortunately, it often happens that we set off a glass with a drink or a bowl of soup and guaranteed misfortune. It is therefore worth asking other people using the laptop whether this situation has taken place.
In case of flooding, especially with drinks such as coffee, tea or sweet drinks, you should respond as soon as possible so that there is no serious damage – not just the keyboard.
Unruly fingers – keyboard doesn’t work “something pressed”
If we exclude purely mechanical damage resulting from our or other users’ interference, go to the next point, i.e. keyboard shortcuts. Portable computer hardware has a keyboard lock feature that a lot of people just don’t know about. It happens that we accidentally press something and it stops working. The problem very often affects people who have a small child or cat at home. Children love to get to the laptop and push everything in turn, and cats consider it to be the perfect place to sleep.
Keyboard shortcuts – what and how
The first and most important point is to locate the laptop’s instruction manual in order to find our “magic” button to lock / unlock the keyboard. If the specified method does not work, you should resort to another method. Laptops have a so-called function key, described on the keyboard as “Fn” (usually located on the left side of the keyboard, right next to the Control (Ctrl) key). In this case, it may be helpful to check one of the key combinations:
– F1-F12 + Fn
– Shift + Fn
– Fn + NumLock
On older laptop models, the Shift + Fn combination is usually helpful, and in some cases holding the Shift key for 8-10 seconds also works.
System keyboard settings
Once we exclude the above options, you should look for the fault in the operating system. To do this, turn off and restart your laptop. When the boot screen appears, we use the F10 key to enable the BIOS settings. Then press the F5 key to load the default settings and once again click F10 to confirm these changes, then restart the equipment.
If the keyboard does not work in Windows, it may be helpful to uninstall it and restart the laptop. To do this, after clicking “Start” let’s go to “Control Panel“. Click the ‘Hardware and Sound‘ category to go to the ‘Device Manager‘ option near ‘Devices and Printers’. Now we use the toolbar, on which we click “View“, and after expanding it – “Show hidden tools”. We will see, among others, a keyboard icon that should be double-clicked, and then using the right mouse button expand the option bar and select “Uninstall”. After all, restart your laptop.
When it’s not enough
Once we have checked the above options related to the non-working keyboard, it remains for us to determine whether it is well connected, if we have a brand new laptop. This is a fairly delicate process, so it’s worth to go to a person with experience with computers. Such a person will also help to mount a new keyboard if it turns out that the keys in the old portable equipment have stopped working due to wear. Consulting with a specialist will also be useful for the mechanical injuries previously mentioned; especially when fast response is required.
However, it’s worth burying yourself a bit in the laptop to rule out common prosaic problems that we can solve without the help of an IT specialist. This will give us satisfaction if we fix a broken keyboard, and we’ll save some money.
Also Read : Most Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows 10
