The truth is that my WinTab with its Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard has almost completely replaced my laptops at home (and often during business trips) – I even get some work done using my smartphones now. I still have my aging but still hard working Toshiba C670-1C1 for specific purposes, such as letting kids watch videos on YouTube or play some online games which is great thanks to its 17-inch screen.
I recently wanted to work on a document so I pulled out the laptop and entered my password – it was rejected. I tried once more, more carefully, only to find out that some keystrokes did not display on screen (namely 1 and 3). I used the numeric keys and managed to log in. After testing the keyboard, I realized that several keys on its left side (including the space bar) did not operate correctly (e.g. pressing them did not have any result). At first I suspected kids pushing the keys so hard that the keyboard ribbon was either broken or removed; kids could have also spilled water on the keyboard without letting me know.
I started looking for online information about the issue; many posts referred to NumLock and other key combinations that could cause the issue; however this did not solve my problem. I also completely uninstalled the keyboards drivers from the Device Manager and disabled device driver updates through Windows Update (as I read online) but still no luck. I even connected my bluetooth keyboard to check if the issue would appear (i.e. software or hardware updates) but it worked fine – so there was something wrong with my laptop.
In the end, I came across a post mentioning a Lenovo pointing device in the Device Manager, and how it should be removed as it caused issues (like mine). I checked, and indeed there was a Lenovo pointing device there (keep in mind that my laptop is a Toshiba, not a Lenovo!). I just had to uninstall the device and voila – the keyboard worked like a charm!
I am still not sure how this Lenovo pointing device drivers made it into my system (maybe a Windows Update component?) but I am glad that I managed to find out the solution and bring the laptop back to normal operation 🙂
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