A person who suddenly discovered that the keyboard on the computer has stopped working , few envy. And, as often happens, such troubles most often happen exactly when the reports are “burned”, a diploma project is completed, during the battle for the fate of the world in another computer game, etc.
On the other hand, the question “why the keyboard does not work on a computer” is not asked very often, since with the beginning of the “USB era” many “childhood diseases” in this area of computing devices are in the past. In light of this, a keyboard breakdown is a reason for a kind of pride in one's “luck”.
Connection
All modern keyboards use a USB serial bus interface to connect to the motherboard. It has several advantages over the PS \ 2 standard that has been discontinued, among which the possibility of "hot swapping" can be especially noted. That is, the user theoretically can, when the system unit is turned on, plug and unplug the USB plug into the corresponding free slot. And many use it, especially the owners of portable computers. In this case, two negative points. Firstly, it was noticed that frequent switching of the device leads to the fact that the spring-loaded contacts in the plug lose their elasticity, resulting in disruption of operation (the power or data line disappears).
Not surprisingly, this is followed by the question "why does the keyboard on the computer not work." Thus, with frequent connection, the plug wears out and needs to be replaced. Secondly, sometimes when a device is hot-swapped, it crashes, so this feature should not be abused. To check the contacts you need to
turn off the computer, disconnect the keyboard plug and carefully reconnect it, gently swaying in the connector. Sometimes the contacts can be returned with the needle to the previous spring state.
Electrical problems
Like any other USB device, the keyboard receives power directly from the port. And since the peculiarities of the internal implementation of the bus are such that several connectors are connected to the same control chip, then when you turn on powerful devices (with a current of 500 mA), their performance is not guaranteed. The solution is simple: if the question “why the keyboard does not work on the computer” arose, then you need to disconnect all USB devices, except the most necessary ones, and check the operation.
With a large number of simultaneously connected USB peripherals, you need to use an intermediate splitter with an external source. Also quite often, the problem with USB is observed in old computers and laptops, power supplies and other elements of which have exhausted their life and do not give out the required voltages. The solution is similar to the above. And, of course, do not forget that the malfunction may be in the connector itself: for verification, you need to connect the plug to another USB port.
Software crash
Modern operating systems use a control program driver to interact with the keyboard. Sometimes it stops working correctly. As a result, the user cannot understand why the keyboard does not work on the computer. It is necessary to use the mouse to go to the “Device Manager” and try to update the driver in the “Keyboards” item. If this does not help, then you need to remove the device, remove the driver with the appropriate command, and reconnect the keyboard to the computer - the Plug & Play mechanism should work.
Case of settings
In modern BIOS motherboards there is an item that allows you to abandon the use of USB, setting the mode to Disable. If for some reason this happened, you need to find the old PS / 2 keyboard, use it to go into the BIOS (Del button immediately after applying power) and enable USB. Another option is to reset the settings to the initial state by closing the corresponding Clear CMOS jumper on the board (its exact location is indicated in the instructions). Beginners sometimes come across the fact that the keyboard on the right does not work. This may be caused by accidentally pressing the NumLock button, which switches the modes of the right digital unit. If the indicator of the same name is lit, then it is necessary by pressing the button again to switch it to another state.