keyboard and touchpad not working in Windows - possible USB/sensor issue

[vjmartin3]

Hi,

I am having an issue with my HP Spectre laptop. The computer was placed on a wet surface, though not *that* wet - I'm not 100% convinced that's the issue, particularly since the computer worked fine afterwards before this problem arose.

In any case, neither the keyboard nor the touchpad works in Windows. It does work during boot (ie, I can get into the BIOS menu) so it's not a hardware fail (or at least not a complete hardware fail). What I do notice is that I now have the tablet keyboard icon in the menu on the lower right side of the screen. I am also getting an error message (Code 43) on the UCM UCSI device in Device Manager. System Restore failed.

One other weird thing: the option for locking the rotation in System/Display doesn't usually appear, but did one time.

External keyboard and mouse both work (different devices). So my highly uneducated guess is that the laptop is disabling the keyboard and touch pad because it believes an external device is plugged in. I've tried restarting, tried PC reset, tried reinstalling some drivers, disabling/enabling UCM UCSI. 

any help greatly appreciated. 

thanks,

Vince

[Echo_Lake]

@vjmartin3

Thank you for posting on HP Support Community.

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, I have a few troubleshooting steps we could try to fix the issue:  

If your keyboard is not working, try the following steps:

1. Shut down the computer.

2. Press the Power button, and then immediately press the Esc key repeatedly to open the Startup Menu.

   NOTE: If the Startup Menu screen does not open, the integrated keyboard hardware is not working. Service or replace the integrated keyboard in the notebook. To continue using the notebook, connect a USB wired keyboard to a USB port, and then restart the computer.

3. Press F10 to open the BIOS settings.

4. Press F5 to load the default settings, and then press F10 to accept the changes.

5. Restart the computer.

6. In Windows, search for and open Device Manager.

7. Click View, and then select Show hidden devices.

   

8. Click the arrow next to Keyboards, right-click the keyboard name, and then click Uninstall to remove the device from Windows.

9. Remove all devices in the Keyboards category, and then restart the computer.

   The keyboard should now work correctly.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.