iedgar10 said:
by the time i read this the laptop was no longer in my hands
Did you ever fix it?
Even if your keyboard is wireless it should work... if it's dongle wireless. Not sure if bluetooth keyboards work without having to boot into to OS.
Also, from what I remember on this specific laptop, if you pulled out the little brown bar that holds to keyboard ribbon cable in place BEFORE you try to insert the cable it is almost impossible to not feel once the cable has gone in far enough. Just remember to pull the brown bar out (little brown squares on the edges of the cable entrance).
If your keyboard still isn't working then the keyboard is probably bad. I'm not sure if you could've heated the laptop too much on your reflow and damaged something on the board itself... maybe someone who knows a lot more about specific soldered on motherboard parts can help. But what i would do is simply order a keyboard off ebay and try it.... they're like 15$ delivered in most cases.
Hello friend,yes I finally realised I could use wireless keyboard and mouse,I just assumed I could not for some reason-it was you that jogged me into trying..thanks for that.The problem I had was the touchpad ribbon was'nt re-attaching I had lost or broke (can't remember now) the brown clip,and after trying unsuccesfully for about two weeks..using tweezers-two pairs of tweezers-splints above and below the ribbon and still nothing worked.I found a man in Nevada who sell's ribbons of the right spec but they are much sturdier than the HP ribbon's ..and he said 'HP ribbons don't like to go back in again once they have been removed' and then it was obvious my ribbon was soft by now and quite chewed up-I did get a replacement ribbon after about a wek of struggling with it but that was too flimsy also.So now I am waiting for this new ribbon to arrive should'nt be too long now.The keyboard ribbon attachment was an error on my part,I was Jamming it too far in it seem's,I just needed to pull it out slightly and then it works! So i will be tape'ing the ribbons down and think they will be okay even without the clips.Apart from that the laptop is running very well Temps are acceptable ..apart from a couple of niggles,HP don't provide support for windows 7 on this model so some driver's are missing and Bios update is out of the question..Do keep in touch,are you American?like almost everybody seem's to be on this website.I am English and a lover and defender of America and all thing's American, people, history,places but mainly the American people,all the best for now Dave Dale