Keyboard/Touchpad HELP!

I repaired a friends Sony Vaio - VGN-SZ55GN notebook - the hard drive had died, unfortunately this was the 2nd hard drive and the first replaced drive didn't have a restore partition etc...

So I got my Vista DVD out and did a fresh install (mind you I wish Sony would take a page out of Dell's book on how to access hardware - getting to that HD took forever!).

Anyway - problem - the keyboard and touchpad now no longer work.

In order to do the install I had to use a USB keyboard and mouse - in windows the system recognizes that there is a keyboard and mouse as part of the system, however it won't use them, also I can't use them in DOS.

So I'm guessing that there must be a setting in the BIOS to enable these??

Can anybody throw some help my way? I can't access the BIOS screen, I have no idea what button Sony hid that under!!

Any and all help appreciated!

 

Bump - Anybody?

 

Go to esupport.sony.com and download all the drivers for the model in question.

 

Would drivers affect a non functional keyboard in BIOS? I thought it was only an OS that required drivers?

Plus still doesn't answer my question in how to access the BIOS from boot - would really appreciate that one!

 

Are you saying that you can't even use the keyboard to access bios (by holding down F2)? Does the caps light even work? If you can't access the bios screen, it sounds like you have a hardware error. When you replaced the hard drive, did you have to open the PC? If so, is there a possibility you may have touched the keyboard/touchpad cable?

 

EDIT: Ignore my post below - the problem won't be a mis-seated cable if Windows recognises the keyboard and mouse! Next time I'll read the post properly before I reply...

Both the keyboard and touchpad have ribbon cables into the motherboard - I'd defo make sure those are seated correctly. If I remember correctly, both are ZIF connectors so make sure the ribbon is in as far as possible when you click the latch down. For the touchpad, make sure the connector into the touchpad on the underside of the palmrest is correctly inserted too.

Hope that helps... it's a 7 screw job (1 for keyboard, 3 underneath, 3 on base for the palmrest).

 

Right, had another think about this.

Built in keyboard and touchpad are not responsive in BIOS or in Windows. Windows recognises both the them - are you sure it is the built in ones and not the USB ones that are being recognised by Windows?
Next question is whether or not a USB keyboard will be recognised by the BIOS - I would presume since USB can be used to boot from in BIOS so it must know what those devices are and handle them. F2 is used to enter the BIOS in the SZ series.

Drivers are used by the OS, the chipset has a different mechanism for recognising input, a much simpler and reduced set of functionality, so that things like the Fn keys do nothing. From the symptoms, not having BIOS react sounds hardware based, but having Windows recognise the devices sounds driver based...

If it were myself, I'd grab a live CD or USB stick OS and see if that can recognise the keyboard and touchpad as input devices. If so, then I'd reinstall Vista and write it off as a hiccupped install. If not, then I'd think it was a hardware problem and reseat the cables/check all the stuff is plugged in as it should be. Once upon a time, I spent days playing with Audio drivers when I forgot to reattach a daughter board...

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the input guys!

I removed the keyboard etc, and then re-connected them into the board to make sure it wasn't a connection issue.

The keyboard is as dead as a doornail on boot - the only way I've been able to work on the laptop has been through the use of an external keyboard and mouse in the USB ports.

I know the keyboard works in BIOS as I had to use it to do the clean install of Vista.

The problem is even with the external keyboard I can't get any access to BIOS regardless of which F key I tried (and I've tried them all!).

Its times like these I'm cursing my mate for buying a Sony - they always make life so difficult, wish they were as simple as a Dell!