laptop keyboard PlAYiNg up. What COUld be the problem?

Edinburghlass_2

Due to a coke spillage on my laptop one whole row of keys no longer worked so I bought this "mini" usb keyboard which sits nicely on top of where the keyboard is on the laptop http://svp.co.uk/product/a4_tech_mini_x_minus_slim_keyboard_5221

Cheaper than doing a major repair and as I don't use the laptop other than in the one spot its no problem having a keyboard sitting on the top.

eamonn321

On my keyboard you cannot use the letter .

Nadia

fwor wrote: »

If the external keyboard had a USB connector, many laptops seem to have "USB keyboard" support turned off by default in the BIOS - so it would be worth checking that.

If it's got a PS/2 connector then it should work ok, but again maybe worth checking to see if it needs to be enabled in the BIOS.

Many thanks fwor and Edinburghlass for your replies and for the link to the keyboard. It looks ok and is very reasonably priced. Fwor, could you please tell me in simple terms how to check and enable the keyboard in the BIOS as I'm clueless. Thanks again.

Nadia.

Shermanator

Excuse me for poking my nose in ;-)

Just a thought, if it is a USB keyboard that you are trying to use, have you tried plugging it in and leaving it for 5 mins? Sometimes they take a while to sort them selves out and appear to be doing nothing, but in the background it is installing the drivers...

Also, could it be that scroll lock is enabled? Happens to me sometimes when I use windows messenger remote control. Really does sound like you have got soemthing enabled rather than something broken?

fwor

Yes - as the laptop boots up, look for a message like "To enter Setup press Del" or similar. If you don't see it try pressing the Del key, or F2 or F10 (these are the most common ones).

The layout of the menus vary a lot from make to make, but typically you'll see several menu options - try each until you find ones that relate to the keyboard (e.g. the key repeat delay settings will be there). See if there are any options relating to enabling/disabling USB and/or PS/2 keyboard support.

(Sorry to say the bleedin' obvious, but don't change anything you don't understand, as you can easily stop the laptop working altogether by changing the wrong things!)

Nadia

Thanks again for the info fwor. I'll try it out later and see how things are.

As for your question Shermanator, I have in fact left the keyboard plugged in for a while but still nothing happened. I also don't think the Scroll Lock key had anything to do with it because I tried pressing that with no result. Thanks for the suggestions.

Nadia