Laptop keyboards can become unresponsive due to a number of reasons, which include software as well as hardware issues.
Keyboards can usually stop working when the drivers installed on your system are not compatible with it or when the keyboard isn’t properly connected with the system port through the internal wires. Sometimes, this issue can be simply fixed by power looping your system.
However, if there are some specific keys of the keyboard that are not working, then maybe there is something stuck between the bottom of the key and the receptor, like some edible or dust, which might be blocking the signal. In this case, it is better to take off the initial casing and clean the keyboard.
This issue is one of the simplest to troubleshoot as it can be easily resolved by just manually following a few steps. There are many ways to resolve this issue and we have discussed them briefly step-by-step in this article.
How to Fix Laptop Keyboard Not Working?
Here are some quick solutions.
Solution 1: Restart Laptop and Remove The Battery
One of the most certain ways to fix your Laptop’s keyboard is to uninstall and then reinstall the drivers of the attached keyboard, but before switching to this method it is better to try power cycling of the laptop.
The power cycle often leads to reinitialization of the system occurs with renewed parameters and the hardware components are loaded and connected from scratch. In the power cycle, first, we remove the battery and then wait for a few minutes until the process gets completed.
Step 1: Firstly, shut down your laptop manually or press the power button for a few seconds to shut it down extrinsically.
Step 2: Take out the battery once the system is completely shut down. This method differs for different laptops, so refer to your system manual on how to take out the battery.
Step 3: Now, wait until all the power is totally drained from the system.
Step 4: After that, plug back the battery, connect the power cord, and switch on the system. Check whether the problem is resolved or not.
This method only works if there is some fault in power looping. However, if the problem persists, switch on to the next method.
Solution 2: Installing Default Drivers
You must switch to installing the default drivers of the keyboard if the power cycling method didn’t work for you.
Default drivers are the drivers that are stored in the BIOS and get initialized only when your computer won’t able to find the appropriate driver for your keyboard. Follow these steps to troubleshoot your driver problem as well as the physical one.
Step 1: Click on the Windows search bar present at the lower-left corner of your screen and type Device Manager and select it from the search results.
Step 2: Once the device manager opens, expand Keyboards.
Step 3: Now, right-click on the keyboard and select the Uninstall device option from the expanded menu.
Step 4: After the completion of uninstalling, reboot your system.
Step 5: The system will install the default drivers when it detects that the appropriate drivers are not installed.
Step 6: If any driver still doesn’t appear, right-click on any blank space in the device manager screen and select Search for hardware changes.
If a device with yellow exclamation mark appears in the place of a keyboard, right-click on it and select Update driver, download the drivers from your laptop manufacturer’s website and install them manually in your system.
Solution 3: Changing Ease of Access Settings
If the previous solution didn’t work for you, then this method will probably work for you. Nearly every version of Windows has Ease of Access settings, to help the user with the working of the system.
But, this can cause a problem with your laptop’s keyboard as these settings might not be configured or working properly. To fix this issue, we can disable these settings by following these operations.
Step 1: Click on the Windows search bar present at the lower-left corner of your screen and type Ease of Access, and then select it from the search results.
Step 2: Once the Ease of Access Center opens, select the “Make the keyboard easier to use” option from it.
Step 3: Uncheck these options from the screen:
Turn on Mouse keys
Turn on Sticky Keys
Turn on Toggle Keys
Turn on Filter Keys
Step 4: Now, restart your system and try to use the keyboard. Check if the problem is solved or not.
This solution works most of the time. But if the problem still persists, go ahead and try the last method.
Solution 4: Checking for Hardware Problems
If all the above-mentioned methods didn’t work for you, the problem is likely in the hardware of the keyboard.
So, if the software methods didn’t work for you then it is time to switch to hardware troubleshooting on your keyboard. Here is a list of things you should keep in your mind when doing so.
Make sure that the keyboard is clean and no substance is stuck inside it.
Check that there is no edible food item or any leftover crumb stuck inside the keyboard.
Check whether the keyboard’s connecting USB cable is correctly connected to the suitable port or not.
Also, check for your antivirus software as it can be conflicting with the keyboard drivers. Temporarily disable them to troubleshoot this problem.
Conclusion
We hope that the methods listed in this article helped you in troubleshooting the issue with your keyboard. In case of any doubt or queries, you can comment below in our comment section.