Laptop keyboard not working and can't boot.

RodenyC · 2012-05-24, 10:55 PM

Recently my laptop has been running very hot so naturally I would turn it off too let it cool off. Today when I tried to turn it back on it told me the fan had stopped working. It told me to press Enter to continue but when I tried the enter button would not work. There was nothing wrong with the keyboard before but now I can't even use it to check emails or anything. I have a Hp Dv7 17.3 in model. Any Foxrs to this problem? Could I use a USB keyboard as a quick fix so I could at least do non CPU intensive stuff? Any suggestions would be nice.

Goku · 2012-05-24, 11:08 PM

If the CPU fan is not working you need to get that replaced ASAP. You won't be able to run anything due to the CPU over heating and the computer doing a forced shutdown. I wouldn't even worry about the keyboard right now. You may of already damaged something in the laptop.

duomaxwl · 2012-05-25, 12:19 AM

Make sure the back vent is clean of dust, than pull the battery for a bit and put it back in, than try it. I know I had a buddy who's laptop turned off due to heat build up, we cleaned the dust out, put the battery back in and it worked good as new. Until it died a few months later.

Rbstr · 2012-05-25, 12:37 AM

IIRC some HP laptops get hot enough to screw up the lead-less solder. It happened to my adviser's daughter.
This might be a symptom of that.

You have to put it in the oven upside down...I'd google it.

Ailos · 2012-05-25, 12:44 AM

I have an old HP dv2000 laptop that had heat problems, so I took it apart and drilled some extra intakes for the centrifugal fan - that solved most of the issues. I also had to replace the keyboard on that one because the heat buildup before my fix actually melted the little keyboard ribbon - and that is a fairly common issue on older HP laptops.

You should get a hold of a can of compressed air, try to blow some of the dust out of the fan's heat sink,and try to turn it on. When you first press the power button you should always hear the fan spin up (it is a quiet noise but a noise nonetheless).

If the fan doesn't spin up, it's either completely out of comission or you have so much dust in there that it is completely clogged. In either case, the laptop needs to be completely disassembled, and the fan replaced. Unless you are really comfortable with taking apart computers, this is something that you shouldn't do yourself - laptops are a lot more difficult to take apart and put back together the right way again because everything tends to be made smaller, more cramped and non-standard proprietary connections.