OK, PC tekkies, is this situation hopeless?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My keyboard on my home computer no longer works. It doesn’t appear to be a keyboard problem, because I’ve swapped keyboards with some spares at work, and there’s no difference.

I’m reasonably sure it’s hooked up correctly, because the lights flash on it when the computer boots–and the home keyboard works at work, and the work keyboard doesn’t at home.

Any ideas where the problem might lie, and the effort to correct?

2

More information would help.

Do any keys work? Are the Caps Lock or Num Lock lights on? Do those lights toggle when you press the appropriate key?

3

Absolutely NONE of the keys work. There’s no response at all. The lights (num lock and caps lock) flash when the computer is booting, but that is the ONLY indication that they are talking to one another.

And by “none,” that includes CTL-ALT-DEL.

4

It sounds like it could be a bad connector. This is more likely if the connection on the computer side is male and the keyboard side female because it certainly sounds like the problem is in your home computer and a common failure mode is a bent or broken pin. The fact that some of the functions (the lights) work and some don’t (the keys) makes me think some of the pins are making contact and some aren’t.

There are other possibilities (bad driver software, etc.) but look at the connector and see if anything is obviously wrong.

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham

5

It could be your motherboard. The connection could be loose or the keyboard chip could be defective. There are two chips. One on the keyboard and one on the motherboard IIRC.

6

How are you typing then?

Oh, I KNOW she’s on another computer… JEEZ!

Yer pal,
Satan

7

Did you try swapping the keyboard and mouse connections? they are interchangable on most systems.
If the num lock and cap lock lights are flashing after the machine stops booting, its likely someone put a BIOS password on, and you will need to find out who did it and what the password is, or reset (clear) the NVRAM.

8

Mjollnir, I suggest you take the PC to a good repair shop. Whether it’s a problem with the physical socket or the controller chips, it’s probably not something you want to mess with on your own.