Solved! Acer D257 keyboard locked

[hollyash]

HI
the keyboard has stopped working. when you press a key nothing is typed on screen but when you have the volume on and type it makes a click noise like it is typing...its like the keyboard is locked? it does let me use the keyboard to type in the password to log on but nothing else. we found the on screen keyboard to type this. any ideas to fix or unlock? i am overseas so online help would be great.
Many thanks

 

[AntiZig]

Sounds very strange, you probably got a virus or malware that's locking up your keyboard.
But before you go there, try going to Control panel > System > Hardware tab > Device Manager
Find your keyboard among the devices, right click and select properties
At first see if the device is working properly, it should be stated in the text box around the middle of the properties dialog box. If no faults are reported, go to Driver tab and see if you can update or Roll-back the driver. If you have your original drivers CD that came with the laptop, you want to grab the driver for the keyboard from there.
If not, try the manufacturer's website, they should have the drivers available for download. (Keyboard driver could be under Chipset drivers package)

If it's not the driver issue and virus/malware
You'll need to download some of the following:

Free anti-virus:
-avast
-AVG
-Microsoft Security Essentials

Free anti-spyware/anti-malware:
-malware bytes
-spybot search & destroy

Free startup utilities (can be run from command line):
-McAfee Avert Stinger

The procedure would be to restart the computer and hit F8 repeatedly until you see a menu. In that menu you need to select Safe Mode with Networking (use up down arrow keys to navigate the menu) use Enter to select the option.

Once the safe mode loads, you want to run all those protection scans in attempt to fix the bug.

If that doesn't help, I'd recommend to back up your data however you can and try to reinstall windows.