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Keyboard and mouse not working
My keyboard and mouse will not function on my laptop. It works fine going through diagnostics. All the keys work properly and the mouse works fine when going through the diagnostics. When I turn computer on, everything seems to run and starat up fine. The only problem is the keyboard and mouse will not work. It seems as if they are locked.
DELL-Terry B
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January 24th, 2011 13:00
Sorry to hear of the trouble. So if the keyboard and mouse works fine while running diagnostic it implies that the hardware is working correclty. This is to say if we replace the touchpad and keyboard you will likely continue to have the same problem. Another quick way to test this is to plug in an external keyboard and mouse. If the external keyboard and mouse fails to work then this will be a software issue.
There are a couple things you can try to diagnose software problems. Think back to when you first noticed the problem, do you know if any programs or utilities was installed just at the time the problem started? If so remove the program and see if the problem goes away. Was any settings changed that you know of just prior to this happening. You can try system restore using a date just prior to when the keyboard and mouse stopped working. Here is a link for system restore
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&docid=DSN_361058&isLegacy=true
You can also use MSCONFIG and clean boot troubleshooting to try to determine what software might be causing the problem. Here is a link that will describe the process in more depth. Basically it is using process of elimination with mscofig to pin down and offendind peace of software.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434
Both links are for Win XP but links for Vista and Win 7 are out there if needed.
TB