Keyboard does not respond when booting - what to do?
If your USB keyboard does not respond when booting, the computer will not recognize you. You can find out what you can do in such a case in this practical tip.
Keyboard does not respond when booting - you can do that
Depending on the cause, you can do the following to make your keyboard work when you start your computer:
- Try a different USB port. USB 3.0 ports (blue) in particular can cause problems when booting.
- Try connecting the keyboard to the PS2 input via an adapter.
- Sometimes it helps to first pull the power adapter and all USB plugs from the PC and then only connect the power and the keyboard for the start.
Keyboard does not respond when booting - adjust BIOS settings
- If the keyboard does not work from the Windows start-up procedure, call the BIOS beforehand as described in this practical tip.
- If available, activate "USB Keyboard Support" in the "Peripherals" area.
Install missing drivers
- Sometimes the computer does not respond to keyboard input until you press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] once or twice.
- If this does not help, you can click on the blue icon with the mouse on the Windows 7 login screen and check the box "Enter text without keyboard (on-screen keyboard)". So you can log in for Windows without a working keyboard.
- Now you can install the latest keyboard drivers to hopefully solve the problem permanently.
Check the keyboard for a defect
If none of that helps, try whether another keyboard works. If this works, your old keyboard is probably defective. If you want to buy a new keyboard, you will find keyboards of all price categories in our price comparison.
This CHIP online practical tip shows you how to deactivate the on-screen keyboard if necessary.