Keyboard won't work

[Samurai7388]

Computer: HP Envy 17-ae108ca with OS upgraded to Win10Pro and 1TB HDD replaced with 1TB SSD

I made the above-mentioned upgrades 'post purchase' because, for some reason, HP does not offer those options in Canada, whereas HP does in the US.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been allowing the built-in HP Support Assistant utility to upgrade my drivers to the latest versions, and I am sorry that I did so as a problem that I am now experiencing with my keyboard freezing may have been caused by one of those driver updates, but I don't know which one.

While composing an email about a week ago, the keyboard suddenly froze and would no longer respond to any key presses.  It has since recurred two more times, typically when I am composing an Outlook email or a Word document.  The BT mouse still works, as does the touchpad.  Therefore, I can launch and close apps, but I cannot use the keyboard to do anything with them.  I launched Notebook in an effort to see if I could enter any text, and I could not.  The keyboard was indeed frozen.

I decided to Restart the computer to clear this issue and when I did the Restart activity took an extremely long time (normally very fast now that the computer has an SSD in place of the HDD). and eventually it turned into a BSOD with a Stop Code Error of DRIVER POWER STATE FAILURE.

When it happened the second, I again restarted the computer and after a lengthy delay again ended up with the same BSOD.  The 3rd and 4th times it occurred, I merely used the power switch to shut down the computer.  When it boots back up, everything seems normal.  I can typically operate normally for anywhere between a few hours and a couple of days in between these failures.

As I do not know where to begin in resolving this, any assistance would be very much appreciated.  Thank you.

[praveen196]

@Samurai7388 Welcome to HP Community!

I understand that the keyboard is freezing 

I would suggest you to visit the manufacturer website and download and install all the drivers for the Chipset & BIOS,

Please check if there are any pending Windows updates and install them as well.

You may also run the in-built troubleshooter and check if it helps. Type control panel on the search tab in the task bar>type control panel> on the search tab (top right corner)>type troubleshooting> on the right>click on view all>choose hardware and devices> follow the on screen steps.

If the issue persists, check the steps on this link as well: Click here

Keep us posted,

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, 

Give us a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on this post, 

Have a great day!

[Samurai7388]

Thank you for the reply and suggestions.

I apologize for my delay in responding, but I have been busy on other things and am just getting back to this problem now.

As stated in my initial post, this keyboard freezing problem just started after I let the HP Support Assistant utility update all my drivers.  Of course, that utility goes to the HP site , checks for driver (and BIOS) updates and, if any are available ,provides the option to download and install them, which I did.  As your first suggestion is to visit the manufacturer's website to download and install any driver and BIOS updates, I am wonder which other manufacturer website(s) you are suggesting I visit (Intel, Realtek, or...?).  Please advise.

In the interim, I will start to look into your other suggestions.

Thank you.

[Samurai7388]

I just looked into your second suggestion and was unable to complete it as your description of what to select does not match what shows up on my screen,  Is there another way to access the troubleshooting for 'Hardware & Devices'?

Thank you.

[praveen196]

@Samurai7388

I understand your concerns.

Please perform the below steps on the computer to run a System Test

- Shut down/Turn off the computer

- Once the computer is completely Shut down/Turned off

- Now press the power button once to turn on the computer and immediately start pressing/tapping the F2 key on the keyboard

- This should open the UEFI Diagnostic screen on the computer

- Please select System Test and then select ExtensiveTest

Please let us know the result.

Have a nice day!!

[Samurai7388]

Hello Praveen196

Thank you for the suggestion.  The test was completed in about an hour and everything PASSED.

That appears to have been a hardware test, but I had no feeling that there was any hardware problem.  I much more strongly suspected the drivers that I 'allowed' the built-in HP Support Assistant app to update to the latest versions.  I am not saying that it is definitely one of those drivers, but the problem just started after the drivers were updated.

Just this morning alone, while composing half a dozen email messages in MS Office Outlook plus this message to you, the keyboard froze 3 times.  When it froze while composing this message, using the mouse, I highlighted what I had typed right-clicked ans selected 'copy', thinking that I could use the mouse to open Notepad and paste the copied text,  However, after selecting 'copy' everything appeared to be frozen.  I could not use the mouse to do anything further, nor the touchpad, nor the touchscreen.

I realize that Microsoft also does updates, and that they may have done an update that I did not notice around the same time, but composing this message was not using a Microsoft app, as my browser is Chrome and, what I do know for sure, is that the drivers were updated and then the problem began..

So, perhaps the best way to approach this would be to reverse those driver (et al) updates - if you could advise me how to do that - and then I will later update one driver at a time a couple of days apart to see if I can determine which one (if any) may be causing the problem.

Please advise.  Thank you.

[praveen196]

@Samurai7388

I understand your concerns.

In that case, I would suggest you try creating a new user account on your computer.

Go to http://hp.care/2dWJKgW  and follow the steps to create a new user account.

If the issue still persists, please perform the system reset.

Have a nice day!!

[Samurai7388]

Because the problem started a few weeks ago, around the time that I allowed the built-in HP Support Assistant app to update all of my drivers, to eliminate it being a driver problem, I did a system restore back to just before the drivers were updated.  That did not solve the problem.

I Have since updated the drivers one at a time to see which, if any, makes a difference.  None did.

As the problem has been getting much, much worse, to the point that the keyboard now freezes during almost every sentence typed, it dawned on me that the weather is also getting much warmer and the sunshine has been raising our indoor room temperature as well.  So, I tried an experiment.  I moved the computer down to the unheated, cool basement where the room temperature is a mere 17 degrees C (~62.5F) versus my 'office' where the room temperature varies between 21C and 26C during the daytime.  In the very cool basement, the keyboard does not freeze - no errors occur!  I can use the computer down there for hours with no problems.

It is now obvious that the problem is hardware and heat related.  So, I removed the bottom of the laptop case expecting to find the fan caked in dust and thus allowing the computer to overheat, but it was very clean inside.

What should I try next?

This failure is very upsetting.  I expected much better serviceable longevity (quality) as this was the most expensive, top of the line HP laptop computer available from Best Buy Canada when I purchased it perhaps a year and a half ago; so, I hope we can get this expeditiously resolved.

Please advise.  Thank you.

[praveen196]

@Samurai7388

I understand your concerns.

In that case, I would suggest you contact our phone support and check for the support option. They will help you.

Here is how you can get in touch with phone support.

1)Click on this link - www.hp.com/contacthp/

2)Select the product type.

3)Enter the serial number of your device or select let HP detect your product option.

4)Select the country from the drop-down.

5)You should see the HP phone support number or Chat option listed.

We are experiencing longer than expected wait times to reach an agent due to the CoViD-19 impact and there might have been issues in you getting the expected resolution on the issue. 

Have a nice day!!

[Samurai7388]

Praveen,

I have been busy in general and also continuing my troubleshooting whenever I had an opportunity as I had no success in contacting phone support.  My troubleshooting has found the problem and I am not at all happy with what I found.

First, I must stand corrected.  This top of the line HP laptop is actually 2.5 years old, not 1.5 as previously suggested.

Nevertheless, it turns out that the keyboard itself is failing with ambient temperature rise.  It is a hardware failure in what is supposed to be a quality HP product.  I am not at all happy to have paid so much for a product that fails within 2.5 years.

To make matters even worse, I have been told that the HP Parts Store apparently has no stock on a replacement keyboard/top-cover combo part  (either 925477-DB1 or 925477-001).  If this is true, the only choice will be to try to find one from a third-party reseller at an exorbitant markup, making an expensive computer even more expensive.

If this is representative of HP quality and support, our current 4 HP laptops will be our last of this once highly-regarded brand.  I am very disappointed and rather annoyed.