HP Zbook 15 Keyboard Issue

[hawaii34]

Hello, I have a 6-7 year old Zbook 15 laptop that my fiancé currently uses. There hasn't been any updates on her laptop in a very long time, and tried to start doing some critical updates for this laptop. Unfortunately, I did a Disk Cleanup, and System Files cleanup during this time. This was a huge mistake, and now it's not able to proceed to complete the other updates that are pending. 

To make things worst, the keyboard is no longer functioning. I tried to uninstall/reinstall keyboard driver, and nothing is working. I'm currently using a USB keyboard in the meantime. I'm not sure why updating Windows 7 would make the keyboard to stop working. 

Any suggestions would be great. 

Thanks,

Craig

[itsmyname]

@hawaii34 -- some computers only have USB3 sockets, not USB2 sockets. But, the Windows 7 installer (from 2010) does not have any support for USB3 devices. Such device-drivers must be added, later.

If you have the product-key for Windows 7, you can use that product-key to install Windows 10, for free.

Microosft allows this, and the result is that that computer will be running a "supported" operating system.

[hawaii34]

The laptop keyboard was functioning normally, before I started to do any updates on it. I'm not sure if the USB sockets really have anything to do with it? Unfortunately, I don't have the product key for Windows 7. I did notice that the Windows Update is trying to install Windows 10 though. 

I'm wondering if the best solution is to do a complete re-installation of Windows 7? I mean I would have to save all of my documents and pictures, before I proceed to do this. I'm not sure what other options I might have? Windows Update isn't able to continue at this point, and I still don't have a keyboard. 

Let me know what you think?

Thanks!

[itsmyname]

@hawaii34 -- The laptop keyboard was functioning normally, before I started to do any updates on it. I'm not sure if the USB sockets really have anything to do with it?

The laptop's keyboard probably communicates to the motherboard using the USB protocol.

So, if the motherboard's USB interfaces are malfunctioning, then your keyboard will not be functional.

> Unfortunately, I don't have the product key for Windows 7.

Free software, such as SPECCY, will show your product-key, along with many other characteristics of all your computer's hardware.  With that product-key, you can install Windows 10, to migrate from an "unsupported" (as of January 2020) version of Windows to the version that will be supported through October 2025.

> I did notice that the Windows Update is trying to install Windows 10

Really?  In the first 12 months after Windows 10 was released (in 2015), Microsoft would try to "upgrade" your computer from Windows 7 (or Windows 😎 to Windows 10. But, after that year, that "updater" was deactivated, and then deleted from Windows.   So, it is surprising that that "updater" is "back from the dead".

Rather than trying to install anything onto your current disk-drive, I recommend that you physically remove it from your computer, so that your personal files are "safe".

If you boot your computer, without the disk-drive, can you press some key on your keyboard, either after seeing "boot device not found; press any key to retry", or press the specified keyboard key, to enter BIOS setup?  If neither of these recommendations work, you almost out of options.

If you have another functional computer, and an "empty" (2.5-inch) disk-drive, you could try:

1. download a copy of Windows 10 -- Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com) and create "bootable" media (one 4GB DVD-recordable or one 8 GB (or larger) empty USB memory-stick)
2. remove the disk-drive from that computer
3. connect that "empty" disk-drive to that computer
4. disconnect any Ethernet cable from that computer
5. boot from the Windows installer, and install Windows onto the 2.5 HDD (or SDD), clicking on "I do not have a product-key" during the process
6. disconnect the disk-drive from the computer
7. connect the disk-drive to your laptop
8. disconnect any Ethernet cable from your laptop
9. boot your computer from that HDD/SDD, to see if Windows will reconfigure for the changed hardware
10. ignore the prompt to "activate Windows 10" -- this is just an experiment

Are your keyboard & a USB mouse recognized by Windows 10? If not, you have a hardware problem, with no good solution, as far as I can tell.