Laptop keyboard and touchpad stopped working after crash

[nihil]

Hi there bb,

I hope that you and yours are all well. I am afraid that I haven't been around lately, as my wife's illness got worse and she died in October.

Regarding your laptop:

CybertecOne is on the ball when he says that it is your BIOS that detects the internal and then external components. As a first move I would take faust's advice and reset the BIOS to default. Then:

1. Go into the BIOS and see if the HDD is detected. Run the autodetect HDD option if needed.

2. If the HDD is detected and you still can't boot or use the keyboard, get the manufacturer's HDD test application and run it from the DVD drive. This should tell you if the drive is knackered or not.

3. If the HDD isn't detected then check that all internal connections are OK. If they are then remove the HDD and go back into the BIOS and see if the keyboard works (the touchpad probably won't), like you should be able to scroll through the BIOS options.

4. If it still doesn't work, then flash the BIOS from the DVD or USB.

5. If it still doesn't work then it sounds like the motherboard to me, and that is end of game.

This means that the HDD may not be dead and should be tested elsewhere, and that you still have a device with valuable spare parts you can sell.

If it turns out that it is just the HDD and it works OK in the BIOS without one then you can sell it as is, or put the 80 or 160GB drives in it (the 20GB is useless IMO) Personally, I would look for a cheap (slow) 120/128GB SSD as solid state runs much faster and cooler than electro-mechanical, and laptops are not intended to store masses of data internally.

The SSD should also extend the battery life.

Hope that helps