# Disappearing keyboard/trackpad



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Computer in question is a Lenovo Ideabook 100s-11iby. It has a clean install (not reset) of Home 32bit version win10. Along with latest drivers from Lenovo. Hibernate is disabled via the administrator power shell. Weird default power options supposedly disabled. Though win10 truly hates fully shutting down. I have to wait for the little light to go out before shutting lid on laptop or it wont fully shutdown and thus drains battery.

Ok, sometime on reboot the keyboard and trackpad wont function, though I can plug in usb mouse/keyboard and that works fine. I finally discovered on my own, that if I have win10 booted to desktop, then quickly press power button, give it a brief moment, then press and hold power button until lights go out, then next reboot the keyboard/trackpad work. 

Now if instead of the internal install of win10, I either boot a backup clone of win10 from a usb SSD or Sparky Linux from usb SSD, that keyboard/trackpad works fine and never have this problem. I think also win10 is forced into complete shutdown by default when run from external usb drive, as the usb drive can be unplugged at any time. But that it likes to play games when run from internal drive.

Anybody have a clue why it occasionally disables keyboard/trackpad? Lenovo seems to have disappearing keyboard/trackpad problem on multiple models, or at least frequently shows up when doing google search. None of found solutions work, just one I discovered on my own described above. Some people even reinstalling win10 to get function back, that seems very extreme.

I also have Acer Cloudbook 11 (very similar tiny notebook) with the ACER molested verson of win10 on internal drive, though stripped of lot junk. Never had keyboard/trackpad problem with it. Though it has a wonky built in wifi adapter. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt and I have to use usb wifi adapter. This wifi adapter problem is well known with these.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

win10 is truly frustrating. They have their preferred defaults in multiple places and unless you find and change them all, they assume you didnt really mean it. 

I found more "sleep" defaults that I had to change to OFF!!!!!!!, I REALLY MEAN OFF! Now win10 apparently shuts down completely if I close lid on the laptop, dont even have to go through regular shutdown procedure. See if that keeps keyboard and trackpad from disappearing. This option is a true convenience, rather than fighting with it to actually fully shut down.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Yea, no more problem with keyboard/trackpad becoming inoperable though too soon to say this problem solved long term. I do think there is some conflict between the Lenovo keyboard/trackpad driver and windows sleep function. Its like it puts the driver to sleep and only way to wake it up short of a reset/reinstall, is while in sleep mode to force a complete power down.

Anyway this having win10 completely shut down, just by closing laptop lid, is absolutely wonderful whether it solves the occasional keyboard/trackpad problem or not, and it is now welcome to take another 15 to 30 seconds to fully shut down without me knowing or caring. Long as I dont have to sit there waiting and watching for this to happen, so I can close the lid. Win10's fast booting is at the expense of a very slow shutdown. I assume slow shutdown is while its getting its ducks in a row to be able to boot fast next time.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Grrr... it did it again. Somehow windows didnt completely shut down, so the netbook ran down battery. I even had to reset the time. And of course the keyboard and trackpad were AWOL when battery had recharged enough to boot the laptop.

I seriously hate windows trying to outguess me even when I have everything set to NO. I ran across a little third party app that is actually meant to prevent laptop going to sleep during periods of activity. But showed configuration screen and looks like I can block hibernation/sleep, but allow full shutdown. Time will tell if it works. Truly sucks that you cant trust any settings in windows to stay put and have to rely on hacks and third party apps to force windows to behave. 

Then instead truly fixing problem issues, M$ seems to spend its time figuring ways to prevent such hacks and endruns and even plain settings that interfere with their agenda.


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## chaossmurf (Jan 6, 2017)

if your talking about windows partially shutting of when you get up to go do soething ---I am computer illiterate but heres what I did & mine hasn't done it since ----I set all the timers to max & set them not to do it (both) that way even if it does set itself to turn off again the timer blocks it (somehow)----all I know is I can now macro in my game for a week straight without any issues -other than the game starting to lag to the point it eventually turns itself off ( game not laptop) --ow this is all in the plugged in mode ---when it is unplugged it still seems to reset itself (one of the 2 settings anyways ) --but I can ussualy spot that it changed one of the 2 changes back & redo them in plenty of time to not go dark --- not sure if this will help you --but its something my computer illiterate butt found ,that helped me
"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy ---sorry lion ,Dorothy wants a tiger in her bed  --yes I know its corny but I had to say it


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Good of an answer as any. With windows anymore, you dont know what might work or for how long. I even found a forum with self described hirelings of Microsoft that had battled with the dissappearing keyboard/trackpad in win10. I found out its related to the hibernate/sleep thing not working well with the drivers. Like the keyboard/trackpad drivers go to sleep but dont wake up.

I've installed that little third party app that should only allow full shutdown. And think I have all settings turned to full shutdown. But that and a $1 will buy you a cup of coffee. Suppose it doesnt matter as I am getting good at getting keyboard/trackpad working again when it does this. If it is really bothersome, can boot windows from usb SSD. Windows is hardwired to not do the sleep/hibernation thing when its booted from usb drive cause it might be unplugged at any time.


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## chaossmurf (Jan 6, 2017)

ow the other thing that I turn off is my mousepad --then I just use a mouse ---because I game with it  ---that's always the first thing that turns itself back on ---and that's my red flag to know to go retweak my settings  ---sorry I forgot that part


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Odd, this morning battery still up so it must fully shut down, but no keyboard/trackpad. 

I did forced full shutdown and keyboard came back on reboot. Grrr..... imagine its partly win10 flaw, but also something wrong with Lenovo keyboard/trackpad drivers cause this doesnt happen with the Acer netbook. Acer has own problems with occasional disappearing wifi adapter, but thats cured with usb wifi dongle. And apparently everybody involved including M$ and the companies selling these, consider these netbooks very short life and disposable and not worth fixing problems with models already sold, even if only couple years old.

I prefer that the trackpad work on Lenovo, but I have a small bluetooth mouse I use most of time, so the keyboard is important part. I do have the accessability screen keyboard in tray full time, but clicking anything letter by letter with mouse kinda sucks.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Time will tell, apparently you cant trust windows reliably following instructions when telling it to fully shut down closing lid or pushing power button.

But so far making a command shortcut on desktop and clicking that, then waiting until light goes off works. Well it has so far. https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-quickly-shut-down-windows-10/

I know, most people just live with windows as it comes out of the box. Good luck with that. They indeed tweaked it at Redmond to be persistantly as annoying as possible for some unknown reason. Truly not way to maintain market share I think... but maybe they figure people will just get used to it and accept it.

It can be tamed, but takes continuing effort. In general I actually like win10 once tamed/locked down some, but its natural tendency is to try and revert to being as annoying as possible at every opportunity. Want something that just works, use linux, though honestly even with linux, there are better distributions and worse ones. Overall though most linux isnt continually trying to steer you into choices you dont want. I truly hate systems that try to out guess me and wont take NO for an answer. Instead of win10, they should named it "wild child operating system" or maybe "door to door salesman operating system".


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