Until something better comes along for the keyboard/mouse issue with the Acer 51

[lleach823]

I have the same problem with the keyboard and the mouse on the Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook computer. I CANNOT EXPLORE or go thru ANY BIOS OPTIONS or "explore" anything else BECAUSE THE KEYBOARD IS DEAD! NO RESPONSE! NO MOUSE PROINTER MOVEMENT! No USB function. No nothing. The computer boots just fine. Everything works EXCEPT the keyboard and the mouse. I can't do a doggone thing. However, I am using the Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook computer rite now. I'm typing this on it. How? I went out and bought a 2-Port USB card bus adapter, also known as a PCMCIA USB adapter. I plugged my USB keyboard and mouse into the PCMCIA USB ports and I'm able to use my laptop this way. Of course, this works only when Windows loads. I still can't access the bios via pressing F2. I am tempted to update the bios via bios update software but something tells me to leave well enough alone and use my computer as I am using it now.

 

[buwish]

Have you attempted to contact Acer support about the issue or have you already done so and they recommend doing a BIOS update?

 

[lleach823]

Again, the keyboard is completely DEAD! There is no function whatsoever, including the FN keys! The key combination, by the way, is FN+F7 to disable/enable keyboard/touchpad function. It doesn't work because there is absolutely positively no keyboard function on the laptop, which is an Acer Aspire 5100. There is no USB function on the laptop. There is no sound function on the laptop, even after I installed Windows Vista Home Premium after having Windows XP Professional and back to Win XP and back to Win Vista again. (I had to take the hard drive out and put it in another laptop to delete the partition on the drive so Windows installation could begin without me having to "Press any key to boot from CD", which couldn't happen because the keyboard is dead!)

I bought a cheap 4-port USB hub to add USB ports to the computer via the PCMCIA USB adapter. I bought a cheap USB sound card. My USB mouse and keyboard, as well as my USB sound adapter, as well as my external hard drive and any other USB thing works fine as long as I plug it all into the USB ports supplied by the PCMCIA USB adapter.

It's actually kinda cool. The laptop, of course, is no longer a laptop in the sense of what it was made for, but a workstation. I'm okay with that. I'm using it rite now! I know there are many out there where that wouldn't be okay, but I'm okay with it.

Thank ya'll for trying to help.

 

[lleach823]

Yeah, I did go ahead and do a BIOS update as found on the Acer website. I updated or upgraded from BIOS version 2.12 or something like that to version 3.13. Nothing changed. Keyboard and touchpad still didn't work. USB ports still didn't work. I'm okay with it the way I'm using it now. Been workin' at this for weeks. I give up.

Thank ya'll for your input okay?