Keyboard/touchpad won't work

[bogart.2006]

I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software issue.

I'm having problems with my laptop, it's an Acer Aspire 3003LCi.

Whenever I have the battery slotted in, it takes a long time to boot up. And when it does, the keyboard and touchpad won't work. But I get a response using a USB mouse. Also, the items on the display icons are relatively fewer. The laptop will hang if you shutdown windows. I have to take the battery out to restart it. The battery's not dead yet since the laptop runs on battery power alone.

Curiously enough, the laptop works fine if you take the battery out and run it on AC power. I tried updating the bios with the latest one I can find on the ACER website (Dec. 2006 update), still no effect. I followed your fifteen steps on virus/spyware/malware removal and I attached the HJT, Combofix and AVG Anti-spyware logs to this post. I ran HJT with the problem occurring since I thought it may help.

Thanks in advance guys.

Cheers,

Bogart

 

[Nodsu]

The battery doesn't have to be flat dead in order to malfunction. Modern Li-ion batteries are complex electronic devices, not some goo with some other goo and paper in between.

Of course, your power management drivers or settings may be corrupt or acting up. The only way to find out would be to reinstall or boot another OS. Maybe get a CD-based Linux distribution (like Knoppix) and see if the touchpad works there?

 

[bogart.2006]

would a reformat and fresh installation of windows xp help me in finding this out?

Edited by Moderator: Removed quote. There`s no need to quote the post directly above your own, unless you`re only replying to a specific section, in which case you would only quote that section.

 

[Nodsu]

Sure, but do you actually want to do this? And then it turns out that it's a hardware fault and you wiped your Windows for nothing

 

[bogart.2006]

ok. so i downloaded Knoppix and loaded it up through the cd. The keyboard and touchpad both work ok in Knoppix, but stangely enough, Knoppix doesn't detect a battery. It just says running on AC power.

So does that mean my battery's toast?

 

[Nodsu]

The lack of battery information could be just a shortcoming of Linux. The fact that keyboard and touchpad are OK, means that your Windows has some issues. Maybe it is time for a reformat indeed..

 

[bogart.2006]

Thanks for your help.

Just an additional question, to re-install the licensed windows i got bundled with the laptop, I use the recovery discs right? So after I reformat the hard disk, I configure the bios to boot from the CD and just follow the instructions?

 

[Nodsu]

Yes, if your laptop came with factory restore CDs, then you can use these to put the thing back to the original condition.

 

[cubdaddy]

bogart.2006, what did you end up doing to resolve this issue? I have exactly the same problem with the same model laptop. Everything works great with the battery out!

I just started having this issue a couple nights ago and was desperate for answers. I came across your post and was thrilled to see this work!