Laptop Keyboard randomly stops working?

Well, I am having an annoying issue.

Twice now, my laptop's keyboard has just stopped working. The only thing I can do is reboot. It is very annoying!!

Anyone else notice this?

Cheers

Uninstall the keyboard driver from Device Manager and restart your computer for Windows 11 to reinstall keyboard driver.

Yes, it has happened to me, usually on start up. Very very infrequent (maybe once in a few weeks) and it happened with all W10 builds but I have not experienced it once in any W11 build including the Dev builds. It was so infrequent to not be a major issue but yes, I've experienced it. I suspect there is not an easy fix as such.

My laptop is a Dell Vostro i5 from 2012 and W11 has been the best experience ever. Faultless and flies along.

FreeBooter said:

Uninstall the keyboard driver from Device Manager and restart your computer for Windows 11 to reinstall keyboard driver.

Click to expand...

In addition to FreeBooter's excellent advice, if you're keyboard has software for it, make sure it's updated to the most recent version that will run on Windows 11.

A bit different, in an earlier version of 11 I found sometimes ( just now and again) my mouse would stop working and/or the pointer disappeared. a reboot cured it and the best fix was as they said reload/update driver

If you have access to plug-in mouse/keyboard and those items work, you can sometimes go into Device Manager. Then disable/re-enable the flaky devices. That's been a reasonably successful strategy for me over the years with Windows versions back to 3.x (I'd say 50+% helpful). Just a thought...
HTH,
--Ed--

PS: but then, I have extras of just about everything around because I review and write about Windows for a part of my daily work/living.

OK, so this just happened again. It's infrequent but very annoying. I tried uninstalling the driver in device manager. Didn't fix it. This was never a problem on 10.

swerd said:

Well, I am having an annoying issue.

Twice now, my laptop's keyboard has just stopped working. The only thing I can do is reboot. It is very annoying!!

Anyone else notice this?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Your keyboard connection inside the laptop could be loose. I had a similar problem some time back, After a lot of tinkering with software, I finally resolved it by opening my laptop and then putting everything back properly. It was indeed a loose connection.

Point to Note: The problem for me started after I opened my laptop to service it. It didn't occur to me immediately because the laptop was running fine for the next few days, and the problem coincided with a Windows update. This made me think that the problem was caused by Windows Update, but that was not true.

Try to open your laptop and clean it a little bit if you know how to do that. Also, update the keyboard driver and see if that solves the problem.

Guys,

I have noticed something weird. This only happens when Firefox is running. And what's more, if my keyboard isn't working and I close Firefox the keyboard starts working again.

I have Firefox updated to the latest build. This is a bit of a mystery to me.

swerd said:

Guys,

I have noticed something weird. This only happens when Firefox is running. And what's more, if my keyboard isn't working and I close Firefox the keyboard starts working again.

I have Firefox updated to the latest build. This is a bit of a mystery to me.

Click to expand...

Use Edge.

jvickers said:

Use Edge.

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I just fired up two new HP laptops using windows 11 pro because I wanted redundant capability working at the same time on the same work. Once you get into the job, their keyboards will randomly stop working about ever 2 to 3 days. I have used Billy's trouble shoot tools which are garbage. I loaded the keyboard drivers...didn't help. What is the fix for the Operating System that is not finished when it comes to this problem. I don't use a mouse. Any ideas out there?

jvickers said:

Use Edge.

Click to expand...

Edge is now superior to Firefox and has more users.

Firefox has had its day

cereberus said:

Edge is now superior to Firefox and has more users.

Firefox has had its day

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Agreed. I've been using Edge for a while - I think since Windows 11 came out. There are a few times I switch to Firefox, but that's rare.