I've got a rather weird one here. I've talked with a couple of local techs and they're clueless as to what the problem could be as well. I have a Toshiba L505D laptop with Windows 7 factory installed. I recently installed Xubuntu 10.04 linux as well. The problem is when I'm running with Windows, the keyboard will stop working after a time. It seems to be rather random when it stops. It's working right at this moment, but I expect it won't within a half hour. May work all night and stop in the morning. It may even keep working for the rest of the week for all I know, or it could stop in a minute or two. It's totally random. The only thing that isn't random is the last couple times it stopped, nothing I do seems to fix it even for a short time. When it stops working, I have no keyboard control. The Num Lock locks in whatever position it is in when it stopps working. Strange thing is the "FN" key still works. The FN key works in conjunction with the functions keys to control screen brightness, WiFi on/off, and sleep mode among other things. Those functions still work fine, but nothing else on the keyboard works.
Using the mouse, I reboot the computer. The keyboard works fine during boot. Since I have Xubuntu, the default windows boot loader has been replaced with GRUB 1.98 (I think that's the version). The KB works fine in the loader. Once windows comes up, the KB may or may not work. Sometimes it works fine after rebooting. Other times, rebooting and even unistalling the KB drivers has no effect. Usually reinstalling the drivers fixes the problem for between an hour and a few days. A little while ago it stopped and nothing I did solved it. I finally booted into Xubuntu for a while to finish some school work. After rebooting back into Windows, the KB is working for now.
The strange part is the KB works fine in boot and if I boot into Xubuntu, it works fine, so I don't see how it could be a hardware problem. The problem is only in Windows 7. I've done some research on the topic and found a number of people with KB problems in 7, but no one seems to have the same issues I'm having. Most of them still have keyboard during the windows login, or reinstalling the drivers fixes the problem. I have already reinstalled the drivers half a dozen times, so that's not helping.
I feel I should also note the touchpad stopped working a couple months ago on the computer. It started going crazy and trying to open dozens of windows (locking up the OS) if I tried to use the touchpad, so I ended up disabling it (via the keyboard shortcut) and using a USB mouse. I'm gonna try to get a new USB keyboard later and see if that works any better.
Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?
Using the mouse, I reboot the computer. The keyboard works fine during boot. Since I have Xubuntu, the default windows boot loader has been replaced with GRUB 1.98 (I think that's the version). The KB works fine in the loader. Once windows comes up, the KB may or may not work. Sometimes it works fine after rebooting. Other times, rebooting and even unistalling the KB drivers has no effect. Usually reinstalling the drivers fixes the problem for between an hour and a few days. A little while ago it stopped and nothing I did solved it. I finally booted into Xubuntu for a while to finish some school work. After rebooting back into Windows, the KB is working for now.
The strange part is the KB works fine in boot and if I boot into Xubuntu, it works fine, so I don't see how it could be a hardware problem. The problem is only in Windows 7. I've done some research on the topic and found a number of people with KB problems in 7, but no one seems to have the same issues I'm having. Most of them still have keyboard during the windows login, or reinstalling the drivers fixes the problem. I have already reinstalled the drivers half a dozen times, so that's not helping.
I feel I should also note the touchpad stopped working a couple months ago on the computer. It started going crazy and trying to open dozens of windows (locking up the OS) if I tried to use the touchpad, so I ended up disabling it (via the keyboard shortcut) and using a USB mouse. I'm gonna try to get a new USB keyboard later and see if that works any better.
Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?