Laptop keyboard problem

I have a Toshiba 2450 laptop that is two years old. A few weeks ago the keyboard started acting strangely. I would be typing and notice that the letters wouldn't appear on the screen, letters would be omitted from words, or it wouldn't type at all. I could press on a key and it would type nothing at all - didn't matter which key. I took it for service as it is still under warranty and the service technician immediately put it down to a faulty keyboard. They ordered in a new keyboard which they replaced on Saturday. They said they checked it out and it seemed to be working ok. They couldn't have checked it too thoroughly as it started acted up again in the same way when I got it home. This it doesn't seem like it was a faulty keyboard at all. Would anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do next. Oh, by the way, I have a USB optical wired mouse connected but no other externals connected. I did have to replace the old optical wired mouse a few weeks ago. Could it be something to do with the new mouse. The keyboard worked fine with the old mouse. This could just be coincidence though. Thanks for any replies. This is frustrating and I am stumped. You would not believe how long it took me to type this message! Thanks!

 

Since your keyboard troubles seem to coincide with the installation of the wireless mouse, I would uninstall the mouse as see if the problem goes away.

 

Thanks for your quick response!

I uninstalled the wired optical mouse and my problem still exists. In fact, I am typing this without the mouse being reinstalled. The keyboard is still dropping letters and not responding intermittently. Grrrr... When I look at "Mice and other devices" it shows a Synaptics PS/2 device installed on my notebook. But I believe that is for the built-in touchpad on the notebook (at least it says something to that effect). Does anything else come to mind that could be causing this keyboard mess? Could it be in my settings ( for example repetition rate, etc.)? Thanks... and I guess I may as well reinstall my mouse now.

 

Yes, double check your keyboard settings. I am thinking this is a driver issue. Did you recently update any of the laptop drivers.

 

I checked the settings and all my drivers are updated to the latest driver versions. I did disable the TouchPad just out of curiosity and it didn't help either. I don't think it's a driver problem. Just gets "curiouser". I'm stumped.

 

3 questions

1. Are you sure the keyboard was replaced?

2. Have you tries an external keyboard?

3. Have you tried uninstalling the keyboard drivers, then reinstalling them after a reboot?

 

1. Yes, definitely replaced... I was there when they did it. And my old keyboard had some letters "erased" or coming off. This one doesn't.

2. Yes, I've tried an external USB wired keyboard and I'm having the same problems which is why I really didn't think it was the internal keyboard to begin with but the technicians were sure it was and so they ordered a new one.

3. No. When I go to Control Panel and select Keyboard... it says:

Device Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows XP Publisher

Standard 101/102-key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Device Type: Keyboards
Manufacturer: (Standard keyboards)
Location: Plugged into keyboard port

I tried clicking the "update driver" button and it come back saying "the wizard couldn't find a better match than that already installed".

I checked the driver details and they are located as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\i8042prt.sys
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\kbdclass.sys

I could click the "uninstall button" and reboot, but where do I go to reinstall the drivers... also I would lose keyboard functionality until the drivers were reinstalled wouldn't I?

 

If you unistall the drivers, during boot the BIOS will handle the keyboard. When Windows loads it will see the keyboard then load the drivers for it.

If reloading the drivers doesn't work, then we need to look for some other cause.

 

Also if you have Intellitype installed, uninstall it.

 

I didn't have any Intellitype software installed so no need to remove it.

I did uninstall the keyboard drivers and restarted the computer. The restart told me that it found new "devices" and I had to reboot to have them take effect. I did a shutdown, waited and fired it up again. Guess what? Same keyboard problems.

This is really becoming an interesting problem. Irritating, but interesting.

Any other things I might try?

 

Boot to DOS, and see if you have problems typing there. If so, then I'd say something else is bad. If not, you might have to re-install windows.

 

Under Windows XP and W2K, I thought the DOS kernel was taken out for stability, thus you couldn't boot to DOS under Windows XP, which is what I am using. You can type "cmd" in under "run" and get a command prompt which looks like DOS but, in fact it isn't. I don't think there is DOS in XP.

 

Perhaps your searching in the wrong direction here, i know its a long shot but try reinstalling or updating lettertypes.

 

Where do I find "lettertypes" to uninstall it? Where do I go to update it? I tried Microsoft's web site and did a search for lettertypes and nothing came up except something about a Dutch font. I googled it and couldn't find out anything about it. Nothing in Windows "help" section either. Could you explain more about lettertypes??? Thanks!

 

Ya im sorry about that, i dont know the english determination for it... lemme check it out, ill get back to you when i know what i meant

 

Ok, figured it would be simple, what i meant by "lettertypes" is "Fonts" in english, you can find them in the control panel but you need to download "fresh" fonts first to install them, like i said it is a long shot so i dont know if it will get you anywhere

 

Yikes, I don't think I would want to uninstall all the fonts on my computer as I don't know how to reinstall them all. I could download some new fonts and install them, but I'm not sure what good that might do. I will try changing default font that I use "on screen" and see if it is that font. I'll let you know how that works. Any other ideas out there???

 

Vaild point, criminelis. I would have thought of the font.

Flyer99, this behavior only becomes apparent, when you are using which programs? What is the default font you are using with the program? Does it behave the same way no matter which font you use?

You may only need to replace a couple of fonts, and those will be in the /I386 folder on your HD, and if you don't have that folder they will be on the system CDs.

 

The keyboard problem exists no matter which programs I am using. It could be chatting on an IM service like Yahoo or MSN. It could be on this board, which is happening now. It happens in Word or Excel. It happens when I am chatting during game play (for example on Pogo). It happens no matter what doing. I tried, for example, changing to various fonts in MS Word but that didn't have any effect.

 

Follow the instructions from this sticky:

DO NOT POST UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS: How to: Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal

This may or may not be malware related, but wouldn't hurt either way to run the scans.

 

Thanks. I normally run these all the time, but I will do so again first thing tomorrow and will post the results. Thanks for the link.

 

I ran through all the tests as described in the link above. I downloaded the tools I didn't have and ran all those. My keyboard acts the same way. So it is definitely not malware. Any other suggestions at all??? Thanks in advance.

 

Since both the laptop keyboard and an external keyboard are displaying the same symptoms check your BIOS settings for the keyboard.

 

Additional disable the Touch Pad in BIOS also. May, May not be the problem.

 

Well, this is why I've just signed up here too. I have a computer that is on win xp service pack 2, only one year old, ati motherboard, standard ddr ram of 512, all correct chipset ddrivers for that board installed, nothing new added and all of a sudden, the same symptoms as above.
Talking to more experienced collegues, we believe it's not a driver, nor font, nor even malware problem, it's windows xp!
I think it may be an accessories issue, where you accidently press a certain key on the keboard and it moves/replaces those keys with other functions. but can I find which bit to turn off? can I heck as like!
I believe I am on the right track, any further advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't particularly wish to software rebuild yet another computer just yet.
I'll post back if I can figure it out first.

*deeply sighs*

 

Hi Foxxie,

I haven't figured it out at all either. It's still doing the same things. I'm no technical expert and don't know a thing about getting into BIOS and changing things there - not a clue. I don't even know how to get there (I appreciate the suggestion though). I guess I'll just wait around here and see if someone else has a solution that is not too technical. BTW, I had XP SP2 on this machine and it caused me so many problems I uninstalled it and went back to XP SP1. Someone suggested thatI reinstall Windows XP.... I have so much stuff on here that I just don't wish to do that. Good luck and if you find anything out, please post. Thanks!

 

Flyer99 To access your CMOS:
1. Hold down the <ESC> key as the computer starts up. The computer should beep and display a message "Check system. Press <F1>"
2. Press the <F1> key and the System Setup information is displayed.
3. Changing the settings: There are instructions about how to change these setting at the bottom of the screen.

 

well, I still think it's a sticky key issue of some sort, where when a certain key or series of keys is/are pressed by accident to turn on something that minimises what keys can be used.
when looking at the accessability options and windows shortcut keys, it's very easy to how how it happens. I can't replicate this anomaly myself, so I think it is the user accidently pressing these keys to set it as 'on'

service pack 2 may be problematic, but isn't sticking with pack one a huge security issue?

 

Technically only if the system is attached to an outside connection, lan, internet, and the like. An isolated system is safe.

 

HI guys, I have the same problems on my toshiba satellite m55, as described by flyer99. I did purchase a new laptop keyboard for the same model but it didn't work at all.. Followed every instructions posted here but still unable to resolve the keyboard problems. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.