Keyboard Driver or MS download Issue?

I have an ASUS N81V laptop running Win 7 Ultimate that has keyboard issues.

A little history; my laptop travels extensively, so oftentimes, an external “full size” USB keyboard gets plugged in. The first issue I noticed was my “alt” key didn’t work, and then some letters didn’t work. I googled the problem and the consensus seemed to be ‘bad keyboard’. I ordered and installed a new keyboard, problem solved, (or so I thought).

Shortly thereafter, I had more issues, my ‘Fn’ keys wouldn’t type correctly without holding down the Fn’ key (the ‘Fn’ functions were reversed). I consulted several “Gruru’s” and the consensus was again ‘bad keyboard’. I pretty much learned to live with it by using a USB keyboard until I had a hard drive crash and had to install a new hard drive with a fresh Win7 load. Suddenly my ‘bad keyboard’ worked fine.

But, alas, within a few days my keyboard woes returned. I plugged in a USB keyboard and once again the ‘Fn’ functions are reversed and also the numbers 9 and 0 along with the colon and semi-colon are affected similarly.

Since I feel the key board itself has pretty much been eliminated as the problem, I think the cause has got to be either with the driver(s) windows loads to run my USB keyboards, somehow it doesn’t revert to the default laptop keyboard when I unplug the USB keyboard or the gross number of windows up-dates downloaded to my machine since the new HD contain some gremlin that screws up my keyboard.

Note: the 3 different USB keyboards that I use all work just fine when I plug them in.

Any and all thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,
:zzz
Lobo

 

When is the last time you removed the battery?

I've seen laptop keyboards malfunction, and I have seen a battery removal for a couple minutes, putting it back in, and then turning it on resolve the issue.

Side note: I've fixed touchscreen malfunctions the same way.

 

Thank you for the suggestion to remove the battery, I hadn’t thought of that. Unfortunately that didn’t change anything.

I did notice that the keyboard works fine when typing in the password on a fresh start, but after the password, everything changes back to the function keys being reversed.

Also when resuming windows, the keyboard has the same issues when typing the password, and you have to hold down the ‘Fn’ key to get the correct letters.

Lobo

 

Am I correct in understanding that it is only the function keys that have an issue?

 

No, the '0' '9' and colon keys are also affected

thanks,

Lobo

 

Can you boot to safe mode and see if those number keys work there? I suspect the function keys will not due to the third party nature of them, but you can try them as well.

 

Hard time getting to safe mode, f8 key had no effect, had to shut down with
programs running to get there.

keyboard works the same in safe mode (function keys are reversed, 9, 0 and colon keys also affected).

Thanks.

Lobo

 

I would suspect you have a stuck key somewhere, or the keyboard is failing. One last test to be certain.

Download a live CD of Ubuntu and preview it without installing. See if the number keys work (not sure if FN keys will, they might).

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop