Laptop keyboard or touchpad not working ?

Many brands of laptops have a number of function keys for managing different peripherals, like turning the keyboard on/off, disabling the touchpad, turning volume and brightness up and down. It is possible to accidentally hit a key-combination that turns off the keyboard, for example, and struggle finding the correct way to turn it back on. The key combinations are accessed by:

1. Hold down the [Fn] key (often colored blue/orange and located near the left CTRL/Windwos keys)
2. Click the appropriate [F_]-key, located at the top row of keys on the keyboard.
To turn the keyboard on (and off) on Dell Inspiron and Acer laptops, for example:
Hold down the [Fn] key, and click [F6]

However, for some other models (Lenovo laptops, for example) [Fn]+[F6] turns off the built-in touchpad, so you may want to look closer at the [Fn] button, and the corresponding top-row Function keys with the same coloring as the [Fn] key.

If the above key combination does not work, it is possible that a driver, or electrical component is stuck in the wrong state, the following usually works:

1. Shut down the laptop completely - Windows/Start button -> Shutdown (NOT Sleep or Hibernate).
2. Unplug the charger.
3. Take the battery out (if not possible, you'd have to drain it completely).
4. Hold-down the power-on button a few seconds (and let it go :) ).
5. Plug the battery, and optionally power cord back, turn the computer back on.


Note: Some models may include a slider key above the function keys, or on the side/bottom edges of the laptop for toggling Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Touchpad on and off as well.