Aspire 5741 keyboard and touchpad dead

[aarttom]

Hi,
Yesterday my laptop keyboard and touchpad stopped working. First they stopped during a few seconds, but finally they did not come alive anymore.
I do can get to the BIOS setup and here the keyboard is working fine, so I dircard a hardrware problem.
I tried to get to save mode and even tried to reinstall windows, but I can not use the keyboard to reach either of these posibilities. I connected an external USB numpad and this does seem to work sometimes.
I´m running out of ideas now. Any help?

 

[webworkings]

Try turning off the laptop and then connect an external keyboard.

Then once you have gotten into Windows go into Control Panel and uninstall the keyboard driver.

Now reboot the computer (without reinstalling the driver) and when the computer reloads it should reinstall the driver on its own.

See if this resolves the problem.

 

[aarttom]

Try turning off the laptop and then connect an external keyboard.

Then once you have gotten into Windows go into Control Panel and uninstall the keyboard driver.

Now reboot the computer (without reinstalling the driver) and when the computer reloads it should reinstall the driver on its own.

See if this resolves the problem.

Thanks for your quick reply, webworkings,

I tried your solution and it works partly. I managed to connect an external mouse and keyboard. (since I do not have an USB keyboard I connected a PS1 mouse and keyboard using a docking station.) I managed to log in and to remove the keyboard and mouse drivers in device manager. After restarting however the problem continued the same. I tried restarting with and without the external keyboard an mouse attached, but nothing.

Anyway there are some details in this problem that I do not get to understand:

1) Both the keyboard and the touchpad stopped working at the same time. They have diferent drivers and are connected to the main-board with diferent cables, so why do they stop function at the same time?

2) The keyboard interacts normally with the BIOS setup, so it is not completly dead or disconnected.

3) The keyboard however does not work with the boot selection (I have a dual-boot on this laptop). It also doesn´t work to select to startup from DVD (hit any key to start up from DVD...). And finally it does not work during Windows setup. If there was a driver problem it should work during a clean setup when there are no preinstalled drivers used.

My guess is that it has something to do with some firmware that runs after the BIOS setup, but before loading an operating system. I´m not shure if this kind of firmware even exists, but all the clues point in that direction. If it exists I don´t know how to change it either. Therefore I hope that anyane can help me.

Thanks.

 

[webworkings]

I see. Have you tried running the laptop in "Safe Mode" to see if the problem doesn't happen then?

 

[aarttom]

I see. Have you tried running the laptop in "Safe Mode" to see if the problem doesn't happen then?

I tried, but since the keyboard does not function until I am logged in to windows, the laptop does not recognise F8 to get into safe mode.

In the mean time the problem got worse. Yesterday I was working with it using the external mouse and keyboard. Finally it went into hibernation. Now it does noe recognise any USB mouese or keyboard either. It stucks at the selection to continue wake up from hibernation or descarding hibernation data. I have no means to select either option and this line does not auto select after some time.

I took out de hard disk and conected it as external to another pc, but I do not know where the hibernate information is stored.

What a mess, maybe it´s time to buy a new laptop...

 

[webworkings]

I see. Yeah can't access things if it won't work at all not even from start up. Then I wouldn't think it is the drivers.

Even though the cable connecting them are two different ones, are you sure they haven't gotten damaged or jarred loose? Also, do they connect to the same section on the motherboard? If so, it may be that part of that section is what is toast, leading to replacing the board itself.

If by chance the laptop is still under warranty I would contact the manufacturer about a repair/replacement.

 

[aarttom]

I see. Yeah can't access things if it won't work at all not even from start up. Then I wouldn't think it is the drivers.

Even though the cable connecting them are two different ones, are you sure they haven't gotten damaged or jarred loose? Also, do they connect to the same section on the motherboard? If so, it may be that part of that section is what is toast, leading to replacing the board itself.

If by chance the laptop is still under warranty I would contact the manufacturer about a repair/replacement.

 

[aarttom]

I´ve given up. I tried everything, reinstalled windows, checked all the cables inside several times and still nothing is working. Finally I bought an external mouse and keyboard and as long as I do not have to choose an operating system or react on any mesage during windows startup this works fine. It´s an extra load and all, but it will extend the live of my notebook some more time. The machine has over 5 heavy working years and should retire by now, but a new one is expensive for now. Thanks for the feedback tough.

 

[webworkings]

Good luck.