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Cat Locks Out Keyboard on Lockscreen

Anonymous
2022-11-11T17:05:56+00:00

My work laptop is a Dell Latitude 5520 on Windows 10. When I work from home during the day, I switch between a desktop and my laptop. Sometimes my cat, Stan, likes to lay on the keyboard of the laptop (what cat doesn't, am I right?). When I think he is about to, I lock the device (WIN + L) so he doesn't jack up any of my work. He lays on the right half of the keyboard that has the 10-key, power button, etc. After he has his little relaxation session and gets up and leaves, I am unable to unlock my device. The keyboard will not respond to any key combination I can find (including CTRL-ALT-DEL). Track pad works and I can move the cursor. But there is nothing on the screen I can click. Only icon available is the battery status icon. Only way I have found to be able to get in is to do a hard shutdown with the power button and bring everything back up.

Anyone know if there is a key combination to unlock the keyboard? I am not a fan of having to do a hard shut down and could lose unsaved data or corrupt the OS.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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  1. EmilyS726 227.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-11-11T18:34:42+00:00

    Hello Phil, this is Emily.

    Sounds like Stan is having quite some fun with your keyboard! :)

    I agree - you want to avoid hard shutdown as much as you can to prevent corrupting your OS.

    I took a quick look at this Dell model. It looks like it has the IR camera, so you can set up Hello Face as an alternative for your sign in. I can't tell if this model has finger reader - that's another option.

    Curious - on the lock screen, do you see Ease of Access option , if so you can click on that to launch on-screen keyboard.

    One more option you can try when this happens is holding down the right shift key for 8 seconds until you hear a beep.. then see if the keyboard works.

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  1. EmilyS726 227.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-02-15T17:42:04+00:00

    What a pleasant surprise to hear back from you and Stan! Glad it worked out. 🐈

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-15T16:48:54+00:00

    Holding the right Shift key down for about 10 seconds reactivates the keyboard. Thank you so much for your help! Now Stan can lay out on the laptop whenever he wants (as long as I don't need to be using it! ☺).

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  3. EmilyS726 227.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-11-21T01:29:58+00:00

    Let's hope he behaves now. :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-11-16T22:40:45+00:00

    Sorry, I am waiting for him to reproduce the issue! 🐈

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