Before anything else, work out whether the entire keyboard is dead or only certain keys are, because the two have completely different causes. A whole keyboard usually means power, cable or pairing. A handful of keys usually means debris or wear. Software and drivers come last, not first.
Whole keyboard, or only some keys?
This one question saves most of the guesswork. Open a text box and try every row. If nothing at all registers, the keyboard is not communicating with the computer, so look at the connection. If most keys work and a few do not, the connection is clearly fine and the problem is under those specific keys.
There is a third possibility worth ruling out immediately. Move the mouse. If the pointer is also stuck, the computer itself has frozen and the keyboard is innocent, so restart before troubleshooting anything else.
Work through the checks in this order
- Restart the computer. Unglamorous and it clears a real share of these, especially after an update.
- Wireless keyboards: power and batteries first. Check the switch, swap in fresh batteries or charge it, and make sure the USB receiver is seated in a port you can see.
- Wireless again: re-pair it. Remove the keyboard in Bluetooth settings, then pair it fresh. Move it closer and away from other wireless devices while you do.
- Wired keyboards: change the port. Go straight into the computer rather than through a hub or a monitor, and check both ends of the cable.
- Try it on another computer. This single test separates a broken keyboard from a broken setting faster than anything else.
- On a laptop, plug in any external keyboard. If the external one types, the built in keyboard or its internal cable is the problem, not the operating system.
- Check the settings layer. Language layout, Num Lock, and accessibility options such as filter or slow keys, which delay or ignore keystrokes by design.
- Reinstall the driver. In device settings, remove the keyboard entry and restart so the system installs it again cleanly.
What the symptom actually points to
| Symptom | Most likely cause |
|---|---|
| No response at all, no indicator lights | Power, batteries, cable or pairing |
| A few keys dead, the rest fine | Debris or wear under those keys |
| Wrong characters appear | Language or region layout changed |
| Keys repeat or lag badly | Accessibility settings, or wireless interference |
| Works in the startup screen, dead in the desktop | Driver or operating system, hardware is fine |
| Dead in one app only | That app, not the keyboard |
| Mouse frozen too | The computer has locked up |
Spills, and when to stop
Liquid changes the priority from fixing to preventing damage. Shut the machine down immediately rather than testing whether it still types, unplug the power, and on a laptop stop using it. Turn it upside down so the liquid drains away from the board rather than into it, and leave it to dry thoroughly before anything gets powered on again.
Do not open a laptop chassis, cut into a cable, or run a hair dryer over the internals. Sugary drinks in particular leave residue that needs proper cleaning, so a spill on a laptop is a case for a repair shop. The same goes for a built in keyboard that stayed dead after an external one worked fine, since that repair means going inside the machine.
The software causes people skip past
Plenty of dead keyboards are working perfectly. Filter keys, a setting meant to ignore brief or repeated presses, makes a keyboard feel unresponsive and gets switched on accidentally by holding a key down. A second language layout added at some point sends the punctuation somewhere unexpected. A pending update can leave input drivers in a half state until the restart finishes.
Check those before buying anything. If the keyboard types normally on a second computer, no new hardware is going to help you.
