Dell Laptop Inspiron 1501 " Keyboard problem"

Bagel3

Hi
can anyone help me with this problem. I have A dell inspiron laptop with a key board that only works in safe mode. The friend that I am fixing it for says that he downloaded windows media player 9 and VlC media player and thats when his problems started.I have tried a system restore point & that didn't work, Then I tried removing the VLC media player & got a Stop 0x00000019 BSOD error so I did a system restore again which repaired this but still can't get the keyboard to work. the cursor moves around but nothing works even when you click on it. HELP PLEASE

NullZer0

Could be a number of things.
Sounds like a driver issue... even though I'm not too sure how it would be.

Eitherway, makes most sense to check the drivers first (even though the included windows driver should work with this)

Right click on my computer, click manage and then device manager (in the left pane).

In the right pane do you see any devices with a yellow exclamation mark next to them?
Devices marked with the yellow symbol either don't have a driver installed, or need the correct driver installed.


Now, assuming that the driver is okay check the event viewer for errors:
Start -> RUN -> Type "eventvwr" and hit return.

In the left pane you can select each log. Go throught the "system log" and see if there are any warnings/errors.

If you see an error/warning you can double click it to get the event ID and/or decription. You can then look up the event/ID on technet/google.


Assuming you have found nothing wrong above, I would attempt another system restore but if you want to save LOTS of time just do a repair install (I know I have a habit of recommending this on boards! .....erk)



To carry out a repair install:


1.Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive. Check your system documentation for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order. To get the boot menu (where you can select to boot from CD), you usually need to press F4 or F12 while starting your computer. This will depend on your computer/BIOS make.

2.When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

To Repair Install, press ENTER
To setup Windows XP now and Repair Install , press ENTER. do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R"

4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.

5.Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, END setup.

6.Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.

7.Reapply updates or service packs applied since initial Windows XP installation. (Advised)

That should pretty much do it for you

If you are having any problems please post back here

iRock