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Keyboard suddenly stopped working

Anonymous
2023-12-22T23:39:20+00:00

I have a Surface laptop 3 and yesterday my laptop keyboard stopped working, however for some reason it only works in advanced startup, and only in advanced startup. I have completely restarted my laptop multiple times but the keyboard still won't work. I have checked the .sys file for the keyboard in system drivers and it says "this program cannot run in DOS mode" does this have anything to do with my problem?

Surface | Surface Laptop | Performance and maintenance

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-24T20:35:27+00:00

    Hello donald ..,

    Thank you so much for posting in Microsoft Community.

    I appreciate you raising this concern and I understand that you are having issues with your keyboard not working. You got me here; We will definitely figure this out together. First of all, let me ask a few questions:

    • Are all the keys not working? How about the mousepad?
    • Is this the first time happening?

    For now, let us do some troubleshooting steps that might help us to isolate this issue. See the following steps below:

    1. Force your Surface to restart by holding down the power button for 20 seconds and release it once the Windows logo appears on the screen.
    2. Check for updates. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates > Install available updates > restart to apply the changes.
    3. Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit - Microsoft Apps
    4. Try to reinstall Keyboard Driver. Go to device manager > keyboard > right click the keyboard driver > Uninstall > restart to apply changes.
    5. Download drivers and firmware on your Surface: Download Surface Pro 8 Drivers and Firmware. from Official Microsoft Download Center
    6. Check if it works on UEFI, which is an environment outside of Windows. Go to Settings > System > Recovery > Advanced Startup > Restart > Choose an option > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings > Reboot. Choose the date and time and the new date and time, see if the keyboard works.
    • If in any case the keyboard works on UEFI, there's likely a software issue that can be resolved by resetting your Surface. Note: This will delete everything from the Surface, so it's good to back up all the data before doing this. See this link for steps: Restore or reset your Surface for Windows - Microsoft Support.

    Regarding the .sys file you mentioned, it's normal for it to say "this program cannot run in DOS mode" as it's not meant to be run in a DOS environment. It's not related to your keyboard issue.

    Please let me know if those steps works and hopefully it helps!

    Best regards:

    Rolando S.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-06T18:11:55+00:00

    Hello donald,

    We haven't heard from you, so we assume that your issue has already been addressed. We will not be monitoring this thread moving forward so, if you need further assistance, please create a new thread to discuss these concerns by clicking this link: Create a new question (microsoft.com)

    Thank you for understanding.

    Regards,

    Rolando S.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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