Laptop Keyboard

This never happened to me, but when I woke my laptop up earlier, the keyboard didn't work. I turned the computer off, then turned it back on, and it was fine. Laptop is about 18 months old IBM/Lenove x41 tablet. Should I be worried???

 

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That's what they always say.

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It's totally dependent on if you laptop managed to bootup and you couldn't use the keyboard once the operating system had loaded. The boot process to all computers that I'm familiar with (Exc. Macs) all tend to run a keyboard check from BIOS.

If the keyboard is non-functional such a sticking key the process of boot can halt to show a warning.

Laptop keyboards might suffer from remittent failures if the laptop suffers from knocks and bangs.

I'm guessing your instance of error was probably when trying to use the keyboard once the OS had loaded. In rare cases it's possible to make Windows XP (and other windows versions) load slightly out of sync, causing non-lethal crashes that only knock out specific drivers. (It can be anything from re-sequencing the idle loop through to multiple threads and processes attempting to access from the hard-drive at the same time.)

It's possible that the version of OS that had been "Hacked" to fit your particular brand of laptop is also a possible reason for such faults, although I'm sure such problems would have been dealt with through a QA process far before it being mass produced and since the OS was endorsed.

I wouldn't worry too much about it if it doesn't seem to be a problem now.

 

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Yeah, the computer was asleep and I woke it up---after rebooting the problem was fixed. In a strange coincidence, it also happened to my desktop this morning too...

 

properly just an windows glitch coming out of sleep mode, can you replicate the error or was it a 1 time only?

 

You can have a look at what happened in the event viewer if you're interested.
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer and find the time it happened.

Probably nothing to be concerned about. Sleep mode seems to screw things up a lot of the time for a lot of people. And yeah, it's windows after all.

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My only theory for the laptop and desktop having the same problem is a bit of a conspiracy theory, not being very serious. If you've installed the same pirated copy of winblows on both comps, M$haft might be updating them with nasty stuff along with the updates. To make you upset and feel bad.

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No the laptop came with its own version of Windows XP (Tablet Edition).

 

Sleep mode makes the LCD monitor on my laptop not come back on. I use only hibernation mode now.

 

From what you've stated Ben I guess the Laptop is disabling the keyboard when entering sleep mode to stop it being woken up by key presses, There should be settings in both the BIOS and Power Management of the operating system for you to set what is allowed to bring your laptop out of standby.

Some reference material that might be of use to you:
http://www.practicalpc.co.uk/computing/windows/sleep.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257699/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?query=sleep hibernate keyboard

 

Is it possible to redefine what happens when one key is pressed? I never use two of the more conveniently located keys and hate the location of the delete key - tiny key, third from the right edge and in second row from top. The key marked by the window 4 flag symbol does exactly what clicking on the "start" in the lower left corner of screne does - much better if were converted to a "delete key" the other even more useless key I could use does exactly what a right click does.

Computer is a three year old HP pavilion 4910 portable running a legal XP home edition.

 

Well there is really two options there, load a different keyboard driver based upon language (Obviously would cause some language barriers) or write a hack for the keyboards driver. The latter would either mean using an SDK or having a decompiler to attempt to bring the current drivers back to a coding level.

Other option is to look for projects people have already done:
i.e. http://shareme.com/details/key-transformation.html

*found by keywords "redefine windows keyboard keys" in google.

 

It happened to both your laptop and desktop? Maybe you should do a virus scan. Just a thought.

 

Thanks. I have gotten use to the stupid location of the delete key and all the solutions you pointed me to both cost money and scare me, unless HP has checked them out.

Perhaps I will contact HP - at least let them know I found their layout really stupid. Next time I buy a portable computer I will know to look at the keyboard layout as a factor in my choice.