Keyboard Lock-up: Causes & Solutions

[mathman]

On rare occasions, for no apparent reason, my keyboard (PC) locks - i.e. it won't respond. The only control I have then is via the mouse. To get back to normal I have to restart. Does anyone know what happened and is there a simpler way to get the keyboard back?

 

[Pepper Mint]

On rare occasions, for no apparent reason, my keyboard (PC) locks - i.e. it won't respond. The only control I have then is via the mouse. To get back to normal I have to restart. Does anyone know what happened and is there a simpler way to get the keyboard back?

Have you tried unplugging then inserting it back in ?

 

[berkeman]

Sometimes for me my PC seems to go unresponsive, and it turns out that there is a small error dialog box from whatever I was just doing, but it's hidden behind other windows. The only way I find it is to look at the pop-up task bar at the bottom of my display (at least on Windows versions up to Vista or so), to look for an error item...

Otherwise, as @Pepper Mint says, if your keyboard has a connector to your PC (USB or whatever), try just pulling it out for a few seconds and plugging it back in.

 

[RonL]

Have you tried unplugging then inserting it back in ?

Have you watched the "IT Crowd"

 

[Pepper Mint]

Have you watched the "IT Crowd"

Only some of its episodes. And I like it a lot.

 

[RonL]

Only some of its episodes. And I like it a lot.

The one I find hilarious is, when the boys play the "internet in a box" prank on the girl. If I remember the episode was titled "The Speech"

 

[Fervent Freyja]

It would be helpful to know your operating system, whether or not your keyboard and mouse are wireless, and if you are using a touch pc! Anyway, check your ease of access settings for your keyboard, then find the keyboard shortcuts for enabling/disabling it (which edition you are using matters). You may find that you are hitting lock shortcuts without knowing it. This happened to me a few weeks ago, I simply disabled the option in ease of access and it stopped locking up/beeping on me! Like berkemen noted, something should pop-up on the task bar the instant this happens as a notification (right click it and disable if you can).

 

[mathman]

The computer is a notebook - IBM thinkpad. Nothing is wireless. Where do I find "ease of access"?

 

[berkeman]

The computer is a notebook - IBM thinkpad. Nothing is wireless. Where do I find "ease of access"?

Probably depends on the OS you're running, but on my older OS its under Control Panel, Accessibility Options (wheelchair icon)...

 

[berkeman]

check your ease of access settings for your keyboard, then find the keyboard shortcuts for enabling/disabling it

Although I'm not seeing any enable/disable options on my ThinkPad under the Accessibility Options...

 

[OCR]

Where do I find "ease of access"?

It's in the Control Panel on my computer...

​

Or, look here...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_Access

 

[mathman]

This as far as I got. What next?

 

[OCR]

This as far as I got. What next?

I'm not sure, I've never really messed (much) with the settings in "Ease of Access"... read post numbers, 2, 3, and 7 again, maybe?

Looks like you did find it, though....

Where do I find "ease of access"?

Lol... for about the last ten years, I've actually been more interested in finding the answer to...

Where do I find "access of ease"?...

If you're still having problems, you could try looking in the Device Manager... right click on the start button, look in the "drop-up", then left click Device Manager.
If you get a User Account Control popup, click "Yes", and you should be there... look around, and at the top, click the icon that says Scan for hardware changes.

If you don't see any ! , expand Keyboards and investigate what you can... here's a screen grab.

 

[mathman]

I'm not sure, I've never really messed (much) with the settings in "Ease of Access"... read post numbers, 2, 3, and 7 again, maybe?

Looks like you did find it, though....

Lol... for about the last ten years, I've actually been more interested in finding the answer to...
If you're still having problems, you could try looking in the Device Manager... right click on the start button, look in the "drop-up", then left click Device Manager.
If you get a User Account Control popup, click "Yes", and you should be there... look around, and at the top, click the icon that says Scan for hardware changes.

If you don't see any ! , expand Keyboards and investigate what you can... here's a screen grab.

View attachment 105234​

I got what you show. So what? I see noting to correct. As you can see from my previous post, there does not appear to be anything to do. I am just assuming a computer glitch.

 

[OCR]

I am just assuming a computer glitch.