Something VERY strange

[Anonymouse]

My keyboard has gone haywire on my laptop. Some keys work okay; some don't respond at all; some print random strings. It's Win 11. Norton reports no viruses or similar. What's happening? How do I fix it?

[thenry]

Have you checked your keyboard settings? You could try driver booster to update drivers.

[admars]

turn it upside down give it a good shake, maybe something is stuck in there

try plugging it into a different usb port

[Anonymouse]

Um, I can't, the keyboard's part of the laptop. I'm typing this via my tablet.

I do have Driver Easy. I know - I'll try downloading a keyboard driver on my Win 8 laptop, port it across via Bluetooth and see if that works.

[thenry]

Reinstall keyboard driver

Right-click Start.

Select Device Manager.

Expand the Keyboards category.

Right-click the keyboard you want to repair.

Select Uninstall.

Click Start.

Select Restart on the power button icon.

Let the laptop restart after which Windows will reinstall the keyboard driver

[Anonymouse]

Unfortunately I logged out and now I can't even log in ATM - my PIN ends in a 7...which is one of the keys which doesn't work

[thenry]

Stupid question, I suppose you don't have a keyboard you could connect?

[heero_yuy]

Lap top keyboards plug into the mainboard with an ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connector, if you can open it up check that that is secure and the locking latch is closed.

[Anonymouse]

I think I do have a keyboard. I'll try it.

I had what I thought was a bright idea: boot up in Safe Mode. The laptop, though, is now asking for a challenge phrase because of multiple login attempts. It's A1B2C3.

The problem is that A produces \A/ (though I can edit that), 1, B, 2 and 3 are OK..but C with caps lock on puts the C at the START, and shift-c erases the rest of the string.

But being a crafty git, I've got it: type C first, then add the rest. That worked, it's asking for PIN again...but I still can't type 7.

---------- Post added at 17:54 ---------- Previous post was at 17:33 ----------

Adding the keyboard worked, I'm in. But uninstalling the driver and rebooting didn't work. I may have to contact PC Specialist and maybe send the thing away for repair or whatever. What a pain.

Now the 7 key is typing a dot. Weird.

[thenry]

What machine is it, model and all?

[admars]

sorry I missed the bit that you said it was a laptop

if you have problems with the keyboard in the bios, then it looks like the keyboard has a fault,

usb keyboard is best bet, fixing will be stupid expensive probably.

one of the kids broke the up cursor key on her laptop, went on ebay to find keyboards, silly expensive, and for that make and model of laptop there were several up keys, all slightly different, so usb keyboard that we already had was my solution.

[Anonymouse]

It's not a specific model; PC Specialist do custom jobs.

Progress...of a sort. SFC found corrupt files but couldn't repair them. DISM is running...but seems to be stuck at 62.3%. Trying again (had to close the window)...

Oh, great. Now it's just sitting there. Support ticket to PC Specialist it is.

- no, hold on, it is running.

It was stuck at 3.8%, now it's stuck at 62.3% again. (sigh) I'll leave it for a while.

[thenry]

Are you in warranty?

[Dude111]

I wonder if its dirty??

I have had my keyboard do things like that until I took a vacumn and cleaned it out..... (Just run it over the keys)

I hope thats all it is...... Good luck buddy

[Anonymouse]

Apparently the keyboard needed replacing. All working properly now. PC Specialist came through.

I'm still not letting it update...after all I've read, I'm scared to!