keyboard and mouse disabled on laptop!

[suuezeey]

Help! A friend has asked my assistance on a problem. Whilst being shown the music package vinyl scratch on his laptop, a problem occurred which crashed the laptop. When rebooted the keyboard and mouse had been disabled, resulting in my friend not being able to log in, use the emergency disk or anything else. my suggestion is to use a usb keyboard to access windows and when inside solve the problem. Will this work? Any other suggestions?

Cheers!


S

[bartonc]

Help! A friend has asked my assistance on a problem. Whilst being shown the music package vinyl scratch on his laptop, a problem occurred which crashed the laptop. When rebooted the keyboard and mouse had been disabled, resulting in my friend not being able to log in, use the emergency disk or anything else. my suggestion is to use a usb keyboard to access windows and when inside solve the problem. Will this work? Any other suggestions?

Cheers!


S

External keyboard may work. You'll probably need to enter the BIOS settings, though. It's usually F1 during the initial boot process, but the screen should say something like "Press F1 to enter BIOS..."

Hope that helps.

[Nepomuk]

Help! A friend has asked my assistance on a problem. Whilst being shown the music package vinyl scratch on his laptop, a problem occurred which crashed the laptop. When rebooted the keyboard and mouse had been disabled, resulting in my friend not being able to log in, use the emergency disk or anything else. my suggestion is to use a usb keyboard to access windows and when inside solve the problem. Will this work? Any other suggestions?

Are you able to get into the BIOS or do anything elseby keyboard, when Windows isn't started yet? If so, it's probably a Windows problem, if not, it might well be a hardware problem. In both cases, an external Keyboard (USB or PS/2) might help, but might not. Maybe you can even get into Windows Secure Mode or what ever it's called? (by pressing F8 while Windows is starting up)

If it's Windows internal, a reinstall should solve the problem (allthough you can probably find a quicker route), if it's a hardware problem, you might have to swap the keyboard or maybe even the mainboard (as the hardware controllers sit on the mainboard).

TIP: If you have to access the filesystem, but cannot use Windows, a Linux Live CD like Knoppix might help. It's easy to use (even for Windows users) and allows you access to all data.

[suuezeey]

Are you able to get into the BIOS or do anything elseby keyboard, when Windows isn't started yet? If so, it's probably a Windows problem, if not, it might well be a hardware problem. In both cases, an external Keyboard (USB or PS/2) might help, but might not. Maybe you can even get into Windows Secure Mode or what ever it's called? (by pressing F8 while Windows is starting up)

If it's Windows internal, a reinstall should solve the problem (allthough you can probably find a quicker route), if it's a hardware problem, you might have to swap the keyboard or maybe even the mainboard (as the hardware controllers sit on the mainboard).

TIP: If you have to access the filesystem, but cannot use Windows, a Linux Live CD like Knoppix might help. It's easy to use (even for Windows users) and allows you access to all data.

thanks.. have tried to use a usb keyboard but it still doesnt work. None of the keys work only the on off. I think you are correct that the keyboard may have to be swapped. I will see if i can do this.

nice one!!

[Nepomuk]

thanks.. have tried to use a usb keyboard but it still doesnt work. None of the keys work only the on off. I think you are correct that the keyboard may have to be swapped. I will see if i can do this.

nice one!!

Wait, if the USB Keyboard doesn't work, swapping the keyboard might not work either! (And Laptop keyboards can be very expensive...)
It might be something with the motherboard - can't you access anything BEFORE Windows has started? Doesn't using F8, ESC, Backspace or any other key bring you anywhere? Cause, if you can't get anywhere with a usb keyboard, probably a keyboard replacement won't do the job!
I see two possible causes now:

1. Windows is making all these problems - in that case, you should be able to access something, before it is started up
2. There's something wrong with the hardware controllers - in that case, probably sending it to the manufacturer will be the most secure option

I do hope, its the first problem - that can be solved by you (and is therefor much cheaper and probably faster).