Laptop buttons stop working (even the power button, must pull battery to turn off)

[Nvidiaguy07]

So it happened the first time 3 days ago, i thought my computer froze but then noticed a blinking cursor, i couldn't press any button/turn on or off wifi, bluetooth or my webcam. I went to hold the power button to turn off the laptop and even that wouldnt work. I had to remove the battery to power it off.

I have no idea what the problem could be.... any ideas?

 

[goobernoodles]

Be a little more descriptive of the problem. There's just a blinking cursor when booting?

If yes, I'd try a repair install of XP.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Be a little more descriptive of the problem. There's just a blinking cursor when booting?

If yes, I'd try a repair install of XP.

when i mean a blinking cursor im talking about the blinking thing that appears while typing. Not during boot it is blinking in a web page

The computer seemed to be fine except for the fact that the keyboard track pad and power buttons were non-responsive. Not even holding the power button down for 5 or 10 seconds would power the laptop down. i had to remove the battery.

It makes me think it might be a hardware problem because holding that power button should turn the computer off no matter what right?

 

[Paperlantern]

Be a little more descriptive of the problem. There's just a blinking cursor when booting?

If yes, I'd try a repair install of XP.

Where on earth did you get that from? Did you even READ his post? He didn't mention the computer booting or failing to boot anywhere... Though he could have told us the model of the laptop, maybe the OS hes running etc, so more descriptive WOULD be better, i agree there, but you ASSUMING he has XP is also not going to help, you have no basis for the solution you provided.

when i mean a blinking cursor im talking about the blinking thing that appears while typing. Not during boot it is blinking in a web page

The computer seemed to be fine except for the fact that the keyboard track pad and power buttons were non-responsive. Not even holding the power button down for 5 or 10 seconds would power the laptop down. i had to remove the battery.

It makes me think it might be a hardware problem because holding that power button should turn the computer off no matter what right?

And yes, in all cases, holding the power button down for between 3 and 6 seconds should hard power down any laptop. Did you notice the machine getting excessively hot or anything while using it? Do all of the buttons function normally the rest of the time?

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Where on earth did you get that from? Did you even READ his post? He didn't mention the computer booting or failing to boot anywhere... Though he could have told us the model of the laptop, maybe the OS hes running etc, so more descriptive WOULD be better, i agree there, but you ASSUMING he has XP is also not going to help, you have no basis for the solution you provided.



And yes, in all cases, holding the power button down for between 3 and 6 seconds should hard power down any laptop. Did you notice the machine getting excessively hot or anything while using it? Do all of the buttons function normally the rest of the time?

Machine wasnt getting hot but i do notice a weird noise coming from near where the hard drive is located, maybe the sound of a clicking hard drive? but even if that was the problem that shouldn't be making all my buttons malfunction

It hasnt happend again but what i did realize is that both times it happened the laptop wasnt on a stable surface, i had it on my lap once and was sitting and moving around on a bed the second time.

Im thinking something gets moved and is causing a short, which would explain the keys not responding.

Also Every other day or so when windows boots up it says it has to check my disk for errors.... it says press any key to skip but the buttons dont work.... could this be related?

this laptop has given me so much trouble i doubt it was worth the money i saved on it (it was a barebones)

 

[Paperlantern]

If the computer is having to "check for errors" nearly every time you start up then the failing hard drive is definitely a possibility. I would have that replaced, hopefully under warranty if you didn't buy it too long ago. As for the keys not responding, it could be dude to a driver malfunction, so the OS stopped seeing the "device" that has the buttons on it. Or heat could have caused the cables to sit wrong and not have contact with the PCB that has the buttons on it anymore.

I still think the hard drive is bad, and perhaps some cables need reseated.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

If the computer is having to "check for errors" nearly every time you start up then the failing hard drive is definitely a possibility. I would have that replaced, hopefully under warranty if you didn't buy it too long ago. As for the keys not responding, it could be dude to a driver malfunction, so the OS stopped seeing the "device" that has the buttons on it. Or heat could have caused the cables to sit wrong and not have contact with the PCB that has the buttons on it anymore.

I still think the hard drive is bad, and perhaps some cables need reseated.

ive been meaning to run the drive fitness test to see if the drive is failing.... I think it could be that too.

Another thing that i noticed about this laptop is that when you go to put the hard drive in it gets grabbed by a magnet. this seems very weird that they would have a magnet pulling on any part of the hard drive

also i saw this review on the newegg website "Pros: The specs are great and it's a very nice looking computer

Cons: It might just be a bad machine I got, but probably once a week the mouse disappears and the computer won't turn off, we have to unplug the computer and just wait until the battery dies."

It seems they have the same problem as me but didnt think of just taking the battery out to turn the laptop off...

also this review "Cons: my turbo button doesnt seem to work like everyone else says theirs does...
my main MAJOR con which i dropped 2 eggs for... is this..
anytime i play a game.. after about 2 hours.. any game that requires any sort of semi extensive G-card usage... it will freeze my computer.. in a weird way i suppose.. the game will still run.. and everything is still happening.. but none.. and i mean NONE of the buttons work.. i cant hold down power button... the only way to turn it off it to close it... and take out the battery.. and its soooooo irritating.. cuz you never see it coming.. there is no sign or prequil.. it just happens... and i dont like that when im showing off my super awesome laptop to my friends.. and it chokes like that.. very very very dissapointing.."

and this... "
Cons: Horrible, horrible keyboard; it's all cramped due to the numeric keypad being shoved in there, and the FN key is where the CTRL key always is, and that makes things even worse. The speakers are a joke. So have your headphones or external speakers handy when you need to play a game or listen to music. The BIGGEST problem is the keyboard-freeze issue: I've done some research on the web after I came across this problem 3 times in a week. Turns out this issue is common for a lot of people who have purchased this model. There's a good chance that a recently released firmware update fixes this, but good luck to people with low tech-skills. When the keyboard freezes, the only solution is to take the battery out, and that is not good on your laptop."

these are all for the gx-620 which is the same model as mine (MS-1651, mines just barebones)

Too bad MSI sucks for support.... When i first bought it if the laptop wasnt plugged in to the ac it would boot in 16bit color mode. I had to update the bios to fix this... I guess i might just have to flash the bios again.

lemme know what you guys think.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

also, i was eventually planning on installing OS-x86 on this laptop which i guess requires a custom EFI bios, i guess someone else has done it and the bios are available, i dont want to do it before i figure this stuff out though.

Will the new bios screw up anything though? And will i still be able to run windows in dual boot with new bios? (i know its probably the wrong section to ask but i guess its related to my original problem.)

EDIT: heres the osx86 link http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.6.1/Portables