Explaining; Why Laptop’s Keyboard Not Working?

Is your dumb laptop’s keyboard not responding to your clicks and you are looking for a quick solution to fix it up? Then it’s for sure that you surely are at the right place;

The unresponsive keyboard in your laptop is mainly an outcome of ‘Keyboard’s Drivers’ related problems. Even sometimes viruses and bugs can cause the default keyboard of your laptop to stop working too.

And if the software fixing part can’t fix your PC, it might possible that the problem is related to the hardware like cable damage, connector problem or something like that.

Thankfully that only happens in rare cases and most of the time, the problem relates to the bad corrupted driver of your keyboard. Most of the software and hardware related problem in your laptop which is restriction the functionality of your keyboard can be easily fixed by yourself. You may need to reinstall the corrupted driver for your keyboard or check and clean the connectors or reconnect the cables and this will restore the normal functioning of your laptop’s keyboard.

Related article: Some Keyboard’s Keys Not Working on Laptop

#First Thing to Do – Reinstall the Keyboard’s Drivers;

A corrupted driver is one of the major causes of unresponsive keyboards in laptops. The keyboard drivers can run into problems because of a third-party app which you have recently installed.

A virus can also damage the drivers and it will cause your keyboard to stop working. Even, switching off the laptop without using the shutdown button can also damage the OS and Drivers too.

You can fix all this by reinstalling the drivers for your keyboard. This is a very easy process and you will be able to do this in a couple of minutes.

Here is how you can do this;

1. Head to the Start menu and search ‘devmgmt’ to open the Device manager.
2. Click on the ‘Keyboards’ option to expand the section.
3. You may sometime find a yellow exclamation mark near the items of this section. This indicates a problem and you can click on it to know more about it.
4. If there is no any mark just go to right click on your keyboard name. A menu will now appear.
5. Here click on the ‘Uninstall’ option.
6. This will remove the drivers for your keyboard. After that, restart your computer.
7. After reboot, your laptop Windows will detect the keyboard and will start to install the suitable drivers automatically. This will hopefully fix the problem.

In some cases, this process may not work and you may even don’t find any keyboard icon in the device manager after uninstalling the driver.

If you don’t find the keyboard icon in the device manager head straight to the support page of your laptop and download the driver for your keyboard. Or you use Windows Update.

How To Update Windows?

Windows Update is a facility provided by Microsoft to provide updates for it’s Windows operating systems components. Windows Update users generally download updates over an Internet connection, although Microsoft makes provision for installing updates… Read More

If reinstalling the driver isn’t work for you, then I recommend you to check if the problem is related to hardware or not. The best way to figure out if the hardware is behind the problem you are encountering is by plugging an external USB keyboard.

If the externally attached keyboard is working fine then surely there are some hardware issues in your laptop. Just move to the next method to fix the hardware on your laptop which might be causing the issue.

#Clean the keyboard ribbon and connector

Cleaning the keyboard’s ribbon and the connector (Which is located on the motherboard), and then reconnect the keyboard back to the motherboard can easily fix this issue in no time (only if you know how to take apart a laptop).

However before proceeding keep in mind that the connector and other internal components of a laptop are very delicate and one can easily make the condition worse if he is not careful enough.

The locking clip which holds the keyboard cables is made up of very thin plastic and if you are not gentle enough it will easily get damaged. This component is not sold individually and you need to replace the whole thing which can be really costly.

To clean the cables and connector, you need to disassemble the laptop. But disassembling the laptop is a tricky task and you might find it quite difficult. If you have never done this earlier I recommend you to check some laptop disassembling videos on YouTube. Make sure you search for disassembling videos according to your laptop model to make things a lot easier.

Once you are done with the disassembling, you need to take the keyboard out by disconnecting the cables. For this, you need to move the retainer in the upward direction. Be very gentle and do not apply any pressure. Now pull the cable to disconnect the keyboard from the motherboard.

To remove any corrosion from the ribbon’s metal contract, use a pencil eraser. After that, use the ‘100% Isopropyl Alcohol’ to clean the connector too. Just pour a few drops of Alcohol and then take the help of an ultralight toothbrush to remove any dirt and corrosion.

Now reconnect the keyboard and check if it’s working fine or not. Assemble the laptop and then check for the issues. Your keyboard will now be working fine it the problem was related to the cables and connector.

#What if nothing Works? Change the keyboard

If you have tried everything from reinstalling the drivers to checking and cleaning the connectors and keyboard cables, but nothing is worked for you;

So, at last, the only thing that you can do is to change your laptop keyboard. Damaged keyboards can’t be repaired easily and that’s why it always good that you need to get it replaced. You can either take your laptop to an authorized service center and can get it repaired, or you can purchase a new keyboard and can change it yourself. Taking your laptop to the service center can be quite costly, but you can save all this by doing it yourself.

Changing the laptop keyboard is a pretty easy process. First of all, you need to buy a keyboard as per your laptop’s model. Now disassemble the laptop and remove the old keyboard. Connect the new keyboard in the socket by applying gentle pressure. Assemble your laptop and switch it on. Now check if the new keyboard is working fine or not. Done you have changed the keyboard and your laptop will now be working fine.

I hope one of the above-listed methods will surely help you out and will solve the keyboard related issue you are facing in your laptop.