The last couple 3 weeks, close to daily, I can no longer type and I have to restart computer

[LizBeth]

in order to be able to use the key board. The cursor is there but when I type nothing happens. No lights are on like I turned something on or off. It happened twice today. Out of the blue and I have no idea though I am sure I am accidentally hitting some button. Does anyone have any clue what I might be doing wrong?'

Edit: It is an HP laptop under a year old.

[Laelth]

1. I doubt that you're doing anything wrong.

That sounds like a mechanical failure to me—perhaps a failing power supply, or perhaps a dying keyboard. If your computer is old, it might be time for a new one.

-Laelth

[LizBeth]

3. Under a year old.

[Laelth]

6. I would check all the connections.

Make sure that the keyboard is well-connected (if it’s USB), or make sure it has a fresh battery (if it’s not USB).

-Laelth

[RainCaster]

9. If you bought it from Costco, they have a great return policy

[LizBeth]

13. I think I got it on line maybe from Walmart. I will have to go back to records.

It has been a surprisingly good computer while I have had it.

[RainCaster]

2. Laptop or desktop?

It might be the keyboard, much easier to test with a desktop machine. Just turn it off, change out the keyboard and try again. Try that first, it's the easiest and cheapest to fix.

[LizBeth]

5. HP laptop and not that old.

[Laelth]

8. Yikes!

Basically nothing you can do with a laptop. They’re called “disposable computers” for a reason. Take it back and get a new one. Raise holy hell if the seller won’t replace it for no extra cost.

-Laelth

[Crunchy Frog]

39. My kids have Dell laptops, and when their keyboards failed, we just plugged in new ones

and they work fine now.

There is a button on mine that's made my keyboard stop working if I accidentally hit it.

[LizBeth]

42. There is a button on mine that's made my keyboard stop working

What button? I think that is what it is.

[Crunchy Frog]

44. I'm not actually sure. I'm on my phone right now so can't see the keyboard.

I also don't have a super clear memory of the incident. I ca try to figure it out later.

[LizBeth]

45. Maybe I can google this. I thought there was a button so glad you told me about your experience.

[RainCaster]

12. If you can borrow a keyboard from a friend...

Try that. If you plug it in to a USB connection, it should become the active keyboard device. That helps the techs figure out where the problem is.
Personally, I would just take it back to Costco, and trade it in.

[KatyMan]

4. Is it a wireless keyboard?

Maybe needs batteries? Or the USB receiver at the port on the PC could be not seated properly. I had a similar problem when I moved the receiver from a front usb port to one on the rear of the PC. Moved it back and everything was normal again.

[Blue_true]

17. If she is using a wireless Mouse, the problem can be the Mouse.

I have had an issue like that several times when I have tried using wireless Mouses. Wireless Keyboards have worked well for me.

[LizBeth]

23. I do use a wireless mouse but have from the start and this has been only about 3 weeks, a thought

Some one suggest an issue with usb and I did miss with one of those a couple weeks ago, went somewhere I don't know and click on some stuff. My son was trying to walk me thru transferring something to a USB.

[Blue_true]

30. I used a wireless Mouse for a couple of months once before it stopped working.

Typically USB drives are pretty clean, if your son bought it new.

If you have time and can wait, take your computer to your local Walmart, since you said you bought it online from Walmart. They should be able to run diagnostics, if they aren’t busy. I purchased a new iPhone at a Walmart after Best Buy didn’t immediately have what I needed. The Walmart was really busy, but the people in electronics knew what they were doing.

Honestly, I still will guess it is the Mouse that is the problem, especially if your son pulled the USB antenna out to put in the USB thumb drive. For some reason wireless Mouses seem to be hyper-sensitive to activity with their USB antenna, when the antenna is put into your computer’s USB socket, it must be left alone and not damaged or moved (my experience with wireless Mouses).

If the Mouse is not working, you won’t be able to use your computer unless you ignore the add-on Keyboard and Mouse and use the computer’s touchpad to navigate. Once you navigate, my experience is that you can again use your wireless Keyboard, but not the wireless Mouse.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

34. Maybe you have some malware or (shudder) a virus? :)

[LizBeth]

36. Good suggestion. I will check that out.

[FakeNoose]

19. Right - that was my first thought

If it's a wireless keyboard - and if the battery is good - you can easily reinstall the driver and that should fix it. However it may not even be necessary. (I usually check everything else first before doing that.)

I've had several wireless keyboards and sometimes the battery is just loose or the contacts might be dirty. If you take out the battery, wipe it clean with a soft cloth, replace it in the battery chamber, and restart your laptop, that might be all you need to do. If that still doesn't fix it, maybe you need to recharge the battery or replace it. Make sure the USB flashdrive that came with your wireless mouse is firmly and securely in the USB slot. (If it somehow popped loose, that would definitely be causing problems.)

My last resort is to uninstall and reinstall the keyboard driver which is easy to do in Windows 10. If none of those things help, then maybe the keyboard is shot and needs to be replaced.

Good luck!

[LizBeth]

24. Checked wireless mouse and good but I like two other suggestions. Cleaning off battery sounds good.

I will try that. It is far from a consistent problem.

[matt819]

7. I had a similar problem

Also with a newish computer. Wireless keyboard which somehow lost its Bluetooth connection. I called Logitech and they helped sort it out. I’m not exactly sure what happened but it was caused by a conflict between Bluetooth and usb connections.

Fortunately I still had my wired keyboard so I could still work until it got sorted out.

Not sure if that helps but that’s my two cents.

[LizBeth]

10. It is like I hit a key that locked the keyboard but when I restart the computer it is like resets it

I will check out that part of it to see if I hit something with bluetooth or whatever. Not sure I use that, but I do not know anything about computers. I also used an usb not long ago, I wonder if that did something. I probably changed something but it is just every so often. Not consistent.

[Blue_true]

20. My guess is that if you are using a wireless Mouse, it is the Mouse and not the Keyboard.

I view the reliability of wireless Mouses as awful. I stay away from them totally, I don’t need the drama when I am working on projects. You can take your computer to the electronics department of your local Walmart, they should have hardware to trouble-shoot your problem, if they have the time.

[LizBeth]

25. You know why I use it? I have taking arrow all the way up to do a back click. I had one computer

I could program the pad in corners to go back and forward, but this one does not do it. The next computer I am so getting that.

[Sogo]

11. I have an HP laptop, also about a year old....

It might be that your hand skims the touch pad as you're typing.

I don't know how to turn off my touch pad; my old computer had a function key to do that; not this one....So, I'll have to have the Geek Squad help out on that. There's a reason I renew my Geek Squad subscription every year. They seem to be able to get me out of any computer jam....

[LizBeth]

14. How much is your Geek because not knowing anything about puters, that is kinda cool.

I figure it is something like that because I use a mouse and am always caring computer with mouse and glasses on top of it adn figure because of the inconsistency I am hitting a button.

[Sogo]

15. I pay $99 plus tax per year for unlimited computer assistance through Geek Squad.

Geek Squad is Best Buy's technical help team. I'm very pleased with them. I usually use their remote service and sometimes in-store service, but they also have in-home service available in larger cities.

Google Geek Squad.

[Blue_true]

22. You can go into the "Control Panel" and reset your touchpad sensitivity.

If you know your computer model and the version of software, you should be able to do a search string like “how to adjust touchpad of xx-model computer with XX-software”. You should come up with both video and written instructions on how to do that.

I would bet my left arm that the OP’s problem is a wireless Mouse. I despise those things almost as much as I despise Trump. They have never failed to create drama when I have tried to use one, hence I don’t use them.

[LizBeth]

29. I am going to try this.

[Blue_true]

16. Buy a wired Keyboard, they are very inexpensive and you can find

them at Walmart. If you are using a wireless Keyboard, that can be the source of your problems. Testing the wired Keyboard will allow you to figure out whether your current Keyboard is the problem.

I honestly have had really good luck with wireless Keyboards, but awful luck with wireless Mouses. My guess is your problem may be the Mouse and not the Keyboard. You may want to pick up a wired Mouse and test that first, since they are less expensive than Keyboards.

When you restart your computer, it goes through a boot up sequence where add-ons are checked and activated. What could be happening is an add-on deactivate. Like I pointed out, I have consistently had this issue with wireless Mouses on good laptops, that is why I don’t use wireless Mouses at all.

[LizBeth]

26. Interesting, thanks.

[safeinOhio]

31. I have a Mac and had all kind of problems.

Shut off blue tooth, got a cord keyboard and mouse. All of my problems went away.

[Blue_true]

33. You have a Mac, which cost more than even high end PCs.

I have found that when I buy a computer or server for specific reasons, it is better to use the caveman approach. I really have no interest in the computer, my interest is in doing the tasks that I bought the laptop or server to do, so I take the simplest approach, if that means going wired on everything that is what I do.

[safeinOhio]

48. I'm old with no kids or grand kids and dumb as a rock on computers.

No one to help me out. I have a 12 year old Mac because they are great for low tech folks like me.

[Dream Girl]

18. Check for crumbs in the keyboard!

Shake it out

[LizBeth]

27. This could be a real problem especially of late with all the shit in the air from fire.

[LuvLoogie]

21. It might not be the keyboard specifically.

Maybe overheating, might need venting blown out.

Is it stalling no matter where you are typing, e.g. text document, url field, spread sheet?

Can you move the cursor to do other things like open or close a program, click on a hyperlink, etc?

Running a free disk cleaning utility like CCleaner can help to remove things like browser clutter. It also can turn off some startup processes that eat up resources.

A person can accumulate a lot of clutter in the OS over a year without regular "maintenance."

A restart will help to unstall your OS, but all that clutter will still be there. If you run more than a program or two or have more than a few tabs open on your browser, the amount of installed RAM can be a bottle neck, especially with clutter and background processes eating up resources.

[LizBeth]

28. It happens like once a day or less. I can move the cursor, I can click on something and it will go

to that it just does not let me type on the keyboard, like I shut it off. Then when I reboot it is like it resets and works fine until the next time it happens.

Well, the rest of that is interesting. I will have to pay attention if it is when I have a lot of stuff open.

[rickford66]

32. See if the virus program is running a scan

It could be hogging the CPU. You could have two virus programs running. I just bought a new laptop and there were two virus programs. I removed one and kept the Microsoft one which works just fine. Or it could also be some other program.

[Hekate]

35. You're getting helpful & sympathetic advice in GD, but there's also a bunch of groups here for

...computer users. The Apple users group has helped me a couple of times. Link
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1092

Of course, the people responding in GD may already be the experts you are looking for. Best of luck!

[LizBeth]

37. Ty, gonna check for a virus, I hadn't thought of that. Though I do get regular scans.

[canetoad]

38. I may have missed your response

But can you clarify whether you are using the laptop keyboard, a USB wired keyboard or a wireless one?

[LizBeth]

40. An HP laptop that is under a year old. They key board works fine constantly then out of blue I can't

type. I can use cursor, I can click on something and it works, I just can't type. If I restart then it works again. Until it doesn't.

[canetoad]

41. Try this

Go to Control Panel, open Device Manager

Find Keyboards, open the HP keyboard.

Then click on uninstall.

Then reboot your computer; the laptop should automatically find the keyboard driver.

[LizBeth]

43. Coolest. Thank you. I am going to do this and you formatted the instruction that I think I will be

able to follow it perfectly. Thank you.

[canetoad]

46. I'm kinda suspecting

A Windows 10 update may have borked your driver; it happens. Let us know how you go.

[LizBeth]

47. I have had two update recently and started happening after the first. Had another update today.

I never trust those updates, missing around with stuff, changing stuff.

[canetoad]

49. Never thought I'd say this

But I'd trust Microsoft these days, much more than Google and it's subsidiaries, Zuckerberg and many other big tech players.

Still, the odd update will go wrong. Sometimes it's from being impatient when an update needs a restart and not waiting until it's done its thing. Other times, there is a glitch in the update and you will find Microsoft issues another update fairly soon with a fix. Sometimes a hard shutdown (ie not a restart) will solve things.

[LizBeth]

51. I was surprised how quickly I got another update and when I restarted because I could not use the

keyboard if forces the update so we will see if it took care of that. fingers crossed.

[radius777]

50. Probably some issue with Windows,

which constantly does updates that mess things up. Could also be crap programs in the background running that are slowing things down. Could also be a virus or malware.

If you have a techie friend or family member have them take a look at it.

Windows has become far more terrible than it ever was, due to the forced updates and lack of quality control.

I doubt it is a problem with the hardware itself.

[LizBeth]

52. Ya. I do not think it is the puter. The subthread right above this we discussed updates.

I checked scan and had one at 8pm tonight and no virus.

[Alex4Martinez]

53. I would buy a $15 USB keyboard from Staples or wherever as a workaround.

Return it if it doesn't work.

Good luck, and maybe you can even borrow one. Old school keyboard with USB connection.