Keyboard Issues

[Ireland_r]

Hello Brian. A couple years ago you helped me build my awesome PC. It’s been great! Until tonight when I went to type in my password to get past my Lock Screen and the letter keys won’t work on my keyboard. I changed batteries and also tested the keyboard on my laptop. I tried using the keyboard on screen and it does the same thing. Everything except the letters works. I’m trying not to panic. Do you have any idea what could be wrong? 

[Ireland_r]

Well, I don’t know what I was doing wrong but I got it. It’s working now. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Thank you!! 

[Brian]

Sometimes weird things happen and your Motherboard goes wonky. With computers today, they are "always on," for lack of a better term. When you hit the power button, it's not a physical power button like it was 30+ years ago, it's a "Request for Power" Button. Meaning the Motherboard is in a semi-sleep state and then gets woken up, which then kicks on the power supply. This is how you get computers to boot up in 15 seconds or less. Anyway...

Sometimes the Motherboard gets stuck. So what you can do is when it's "Off," is to pull the AC Power Plug out of the Power Supply and wait a few minutes (2-3 should be enough) for things to completely power down and reset when you plug the AC cord back in. This should do a "Hard Reset" and sometimes get things working again. The second thing you can do, is purchase a CHEAP USB Keyboard, such as this one to use if your wireless keyboard acts up again. Sometimes, you don't even need to buy a USB Keyboard, it is quite possible to have one lying around in a closet somewhere.