My laptop hd seems to have died, so I picked up my old laptop whose keyboard didn’t work but that I could use with a plugged in secondary keyboard.
Unfortunately, now the computer is continuously typying a special letter. I removed this letter from the keyboard, but it keeps typying it. So I need to disable the main keyboard in order to be able to use the plugged in one.
Unfortunately, disabling it in the device manager doesn’t do anything unless I restart, and if I restart, the main keyboard is back. And I can’t download anything since I can’t type an adress.
Is there a solution that doesn’t involve opening the laptop? Thanks in advance.
I’d instruct you to boot into the BIOS menu or use the command line but since you can’t type anything and you don’t want to open it up, I think you may be SOL. Sorry.
Hopefully someone with a deeper knowledge of Windows (I assume?) has another idea.
I don’t think you can disable a built-in keyboard in Windows Device Manager. However, it may be possible to deliberately install an incompatible driver (Obviously, create a Restore Point before proceeding.) Check out this reddit post:
FYI keep in mind that laptop keyboards are (usually) a drop-in replacement and the repair process is quite simple/cheap.
Installing an incompatible driver is literally point and click, and an OEM replacement can be as cheap as 50 bucks (a lotta coffee gets dumped into laptops.)
Complete removal isn’t a great idea since the keyboard doubles as a crumb catcher/dust cover to protect internal components far more fragile and valuable than the keyboard. I suppose it could be unplugged but there’s no good way to predict how the laptop’s BIOS will react to a missing keyboard.
Removing the keycap will not necessarily release the connection if there is liquid gunk or food in the keyswitch mechanism. If a key is stuck I would try spraying evaporating contact cleaner down into the keyswitch mechanism and see if you can get it to release. You could also try spraying isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol into the switch but as it is 30% water use it sparingly and force dry the area with a fan afterwards.
Replacement keyboards for old notebooks are usually pretty cheap on ebay that’s the direction I would go.
Can you bring up the software keyboard, it shows up in the accessibility menu of windows, and should have the offending key highlighted. Click on that and see if the problem persists.
I left alone this computer and bought another. However, I’m still using it because I have a lot of stuff on it. Basically, I torn away half of the heyboard (I couldn’t remove it, it’s fixed in one way or another toward the center, and I don’t dare to rip it off in force, not knowing what would happen. When I shake the half-torn keyboard, I sometimes manage to make it stop whatever it is doing, which is generally : typying “ç” continouously, or switching to “plane mode” (not a problem), or rising the sound volume (not very annoying) or going up in the page of menu continuously (very annoying).
Everything I tried failed.
OK, that’s the only solution that is left. I still don’t want to open it up (or rather to rip the keyboard off in force to access whatever links it to the motherboard, but I guess the BIOS is the only option left.
Unfortunately, when I try to do that, windows tells me that it has determined that the current driver is latests update for my device, and doesn’t let me install the new fake driver. If I first uninstall the driver, I can’t change the driver, since if I try, he asks me to reboot first in order to complete the uninstall, and if I reboot, it reinstalls the driver and then it’s the best updated driver, and it doesn’t want me to replace it manually, etc…
Unless I missed something, it doiesn’t seem to work with windows 10
I wish I could. Unfortunately, my model of keyboard is well fixed to the laptop.
This concern me too (the BIOS not liking the lack of main keyboard, even if I have another plugged in.
In fact, as I wrote, it’s not just this key. The keyboard gives a number of random command to the laptop.
Thanks for your answers anyway, even though I didn’t try them at the time, buying another computer instead.
By the way, I’m totally impressed that this computer is still working, if badly. The screen is unhinged, the frame opened on the power side, the keyboarde half ripped, one at lea
I left alone this computer and bought another. However, I’m still using it because I have a lot of stuff on it. Basically, I torn away half of the heyboard (I couldn’t remove it, it’s fixed in one way or another toward the center, and I don’t dare to rip it off in force, not knowing what would happen. When I shake the half-torn keyboard, I sometimes manage to make it stop whatever it is doing, which is generally : typying “ç” continuously, or switching to “plane mode” (not a problem), or rising the sound volume (not very annoying) or going up in the page or menu continuously (very annoying).
Everything I tried failed.
OK, that’s the only solution that is left. I still don’t want to open it up (or rather to rip the keyboard off in force to access whatever links it to the motherboard, but I guess the BIOS is the only option left.
Unfortunately, when I try to do that, windows tells me that it has determined that the current driver is the latest update for my device, and doesn’t let me install the new fake driver. If I first uninstall the driver, I can’t change the driver, since if I try, he asks me to reboot first in order to complete the uninstall, and if I reboot, it reinstalls the driver and then it’s the best updated driver, and it doesn’t want me to replace it manually, etc…
Unless I missed something, it doiesn’t seem to work with windows 10
I wish I could. Unfortunately, my model of keyboard is well fixed to the laptop.
This concerns me too (the BIOS not liking the lack of main keyboard, even if I have another plugged in).
In fact, as I wrote, it’s not just this key. The keyboard gives a number of random command to the laptop.
Thanks for your answers anyway, even though I didn’t try them at the time, buying another computer instead.
By the way, I’m totally impressed that this computer is still working, if badly. The screen is unhinged, the frame opened on the power side, the keyboard half ripped, one at least of the fans doesn’t work anymore, it’s full of dust and crumbles…For the record, it’s an HP. While the other I had (an ASUS) stopped working if I there was anything weighting on the left side, and the hard drive was destroyed because a headphone set fell from my head onto this part of the frame (that covered the hard drive). I had read that the metal frame should be prefered over the much less sturdy plastic one, but I couldn’t have imagined that it was so shitty that any shock, regardless how light, could damage the computer. I hope that the new one (ACER) will be more like the first.
However, if someone has an idea, I’m still a taker. Sooner or later, this computer will stop reacting to being shaken.
