Laptop keyboard problem

[ilscuro]

Hello all, i'm trying to repair a laptop for a friend of mine which has gone tits up, he tells me it's had a faulty keyboard for a while so he just uses an external usb keyboard, and he's been happy with that, but windows has stopped working, and normally i would just put a fresh install on there.

This is where i'm struggling i can get into bios and change boot sequence to boot first from dvd, but upon rebooting and being asked to press a key to boot from dvd the external keyboard isn't being recognised, even though it's recognised when i press f2 to enter the bios?

I'm just looking for an easy fix tbh before i consider replacing the laptop's keyboard, or finding out why it's stopped working.

It's a Toshiba satellite c660 and there aren't that many options in the bios, so i'm stuck, any idea please.


Cheers

[evilsatan]

So is the internal keyboard working in BIOS or are you using the external for that? If the internal doesn't work in the BIOS then chances are it's bust or the cable is loose. Lift the keyboard off and check the connection, failing that you will probs have to replace it. Should be easy to get one as those laptops are incredibly common.

Other option would be to install windows using another machine then put the HDD into that one. Not a method I like but needs must.

[ilscuro]

Laptop's keyboard doesn't work in bios either mate, do you mean remove the hd from the laptop, connect it up to my pc, installing windows on it, and then replacing it in the laptop?

Sounds to easy lol, but if it works i'll give it a go first, before i look into replacing the keyboard, thanks

[evilsatan]

Yes that's what I mean, windows 7 has a large driver store so should take care of the important ones and you can install the rest afterwards. Not recommended but it's a workaround.