Sony Netbook Keyboard Stopped Working

[RJack]

The Mrs left her Netbook on the bed for a while and when she returned it had turned itself off.  When she restarted the laptop the keyboard no longer works on the password screen of windows.

It's a VAIO VPCM12MIE/P i think maybe the connector to the keyboard might of overheated but is there anything else i should look for?

Cheers

[Peter Venkman]

Is it a keyboard problem or a windows problem?

Will it work with a USB keyboard plugged in? can you reboot the netbook into the bios by pressing delete or F2 keys?

If it wont boot into the bios at all then it could well be a burnt out southbridge chip (quite expensive) if it will boot into the bios then the chip/keyboard are fine and it will be a system restore/driver uninstall/reinstall when in windows after plugging in a USB keyboard.

[RJack]

Thanks JJ I'll check it out tonight, I didn't think about trying to access BIOS settings.  I'll try getting in via net book keyboard if that don't work I'll try plugging in USB keyboard and let you know the results.

[RJack]

Keyboard seems to work ok in BIOS so i connected a USB keyboard & Mouse into the Netbook and this worked ok too. 

I went into Device Manager and noticed there was a ! conflict error on the PS/2 Keyboard so i went into properties and it said read Hardware Device not working (possibly registry) Code 19 error so i uninstalled the driver & rebooted but it came back with the same ! conflict error.

I'm not sure if it's related but the track pad is not working either so could the 2 be conflicting with each other?

I've tried restoring Laptop to an earlier date but this didn't seem to work either.

Someone at work suggested i take out the Net book battery to see if it will work just with power cable connected if it does they reckon it could be a faulty battery.

[Peter Venkman]

Nothing to lose in taking out the battery I guess but not heard of that one before.

I would go into the netbook and uninstall all the onboard keyboard/mousepad drivers. The inbuilt ones and not the plug in mouse/keyboard.

Uninstall them completely and any mousepointer software that came preinstalled, reboot the netbook and reinstall them, it will either pick them up automatically or if that fails to work download the drivers from the sony website as it sounds like a driver issue to me, corruption in the drivers is not uncommon.

Hope this helps.

[RJack]

Thanks JJ I'll give that a try tonight, if all fails I'll just do a clean install

[RJack]

Job done uninstalled keyboard & track pad drivers and rebooted.  Keyboard was working but mouse wasn't.  Logged back in again removed all track pad drivers again rebooted and both were working.

Thanks again for the help JJ

[Peter Venkman]

Good stuff glad to be of assistance