Only thing on my Dell XPS that works is the touchpad

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

KNOM

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
6
0
4,510
Hey guys, im a new intern at a IT firm and they've asked me to reinstall windows 7 on my new work laptop. After I installed, I downloaded and installed all the drivers from Dell.s website. Got it all done and all I need to do left was restart the computer for them to work. Problem is, when it came back to my login screen for User and Password, nothing worked. Not the keyboard, mouse, or even touchpad. So I held the power button to turn it off and now it wont turn back on. So for the next couple of hours, I'm trying to figure it out. After much research, I'm thinking I need to rid some of the static charge buildup from removing the battery, holding down the power button for 30 seconds, put the battery back in, and then try and boot it up again.

My boss doesn't think I should open up the laptop so I'm trying to figure things out. While doing so, I was given a large external monitor as a secondary screen. I went ahead and plugged it in for some reason and I saw that everything actually shows up on the external screen. But now the touchpad works and the keyboard does not. I even tried to plug in an external keyboard via USB and it doesn't work. Now I am stumped and have no idea what else to try.

PLEASE HELP!

My Laptop is a 2012 DELL XPS Ultrabook L421x
 
Solution
James Mason
Here's the owners manual, it will tell you how to take it apart:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-14-l421x_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

Something similar happened to me not to long ago with a new system build, i tried installing all the drivers at once and then after a restart the computer just turned to ****. But I had an internal optical drive so I was able to get it to reinstall.

There's also this article about the keyboard and mouse and ect not working:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN115351
Sort by date Sort by votes
James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
7
74,965
Have you tried calling Dell?

The thing with installing drivers, is doing them "all at once" can actually completely fubar the computer.
The safe way is to install one, restart, install one, restart, repeat.
can you get into the BIOS at all? Cause that should come in before any OS problems start occurring.
You might have to restart with a clean OS install, and install the drivers safely.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

KNOM

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
6
0
4,510


Maybe that might be it as far as the problem goes with installing all the drivers at once. I definitely did do that. But I can't get into the BIOS. The options for getting into the BIOS doesn't even show up on the screen of the external monitor. Even if it did, with the keyboard not working, I don't think it would be much help. I want to try and re-do a clean install of the OS but I wouldn't even know where to start if I can't even get to the boot menu and tell the laptop where to boot from.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
7
74,965


You don't need to wait for the prompt to enter the bios, just restart the system and start spamming the key to enter it (f2, f8, hit them both)

Try putting the windows install disk in, UNLESS you changed the boot order after installing it last time, it should still boot from the CD first, and then it will load the basic drivers that worked the first time you installed it.

If it STILL doesn't work, then that means something else is wrong with the laptop and you'd have to send it back to dell anyways to get them to replace it or fix the faulty hardware.

Unless when you said take out the battery you meant taking out the CMOS battery, because that would reset the BIOS and maybe provide a fix, but taking a laptop apart is rather dangerous, as they have ALOT of tiny screws and can be very hard to take apart without the right guide (but you can download it from dell).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

KNOM

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
6
0
4,510


Well I've tried to spam f2, f8, f12, all at the same time. Nothing is getting me into the BIOS. The laptop itself doesnt have a CD drive so we are using an external Samsung CD drive via USB and it actually doesn't seem to power up unless I unplug it and plug it back in from the user login screen. THEN it powers up and I'm able to remove the CD. But yeah, otherwise, im unable to boot up from anywhere else.

Absolutely nothing was wrong with the laptop before I began to reinstall Windows too. Everything worked PERFECT while installing drivers. It just all went down the drain when I restarted. Now I can't do anything else at all unless I get this fixed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
7
74,965
Here's the owners manual, it will tell you how to take it apart:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-14-l421x_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

Something similar happened to me not to long ago with a new system build, i tried installing all the drivers at once and then after a restart the computer just turned to ****. But I had an internal optical drive so I was able to get it to reinstall.

There's also this article about the keyboard and mouse and ect not working:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN115351
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
K

KNOM

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
6
0
4,510


So I was finally able to convince my boss that I should open and reseat the battery pins to the motherboard and he finally gave me a yes to do so. It's alive!!!! Everything is in perfect working order. Thanks for all your replies when I was in need of other options. =]
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom