Another Numlock Issue

WizzardOne · 29 Dec 2011

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium/W/SP1. Toshiba Satellite Laptop
The numlock key comes on [at least the light comes on] at boot and totally disables all keyboard functions including the keys on the numeric keypad!
I have scanned for malware, viruses, etc. and no indications of trouble there.
The only way I was able to get around this, was to install an external keyboard via a usb port, then turn off the numlock with it. This toggles the key on/off on both the external and built in keyboard and activates the keys. If I open a word processor and press the numlock key, either one, it places the characters " ';B " without the quotes [that might be another character, I can't remember] then all other characters work from the keyboards.
If I press the numlock key on the built in keyboard, it comes on and locks everything out again until I go back to the external keyboard.
Do I have a defective built in keyboard or perhaps a corrupted file? Help please!

DustSailor · 29 Dec 2011

WizzardOne,

Did you look around in your BIOS for anything that says "turn on Numlock on bootup"?

WizzardOne · 29 Dec 2011

The numlock comes on immediately upon power on and locks me out of even pressing the F2 key to edit the bios.
Not sure if you can get to it after boot and use of the external keyboard to "unlock" the keyboard?
I have even run regedit keyboard settings after enabling the keys to get to the "run" prompt.
I want to say I reset the value to =0

DustSailor · 29 Dec 2011

So you are sure you haven't gone into the BIOS and changed any settings for numlock?
Have you changed any other settings? Because you just might reset the BIOS entirely

What antivirus are you running?
Using your method of getting your keyboard to work, follow these tutorials:
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
and if you can, use this 3 times Startup Repair

DustSailor · 29 Dec 2011

WizzardOne said:

I have even run regedit keyboard settings after enabling the keys to get to the "run" prompt.
I want to say I reset the value to =0

No, you can't get to the BIOS after boot. And what does your quote up here mean, I'm not understanding what you did.

Did you change keyboard settings in the registry? And what value did you set to 0? And why are you changing registry settings (Have you before)?

WizzardOne · 29 Dec 2011

Change the value of 'InitialKeyboardIndicators' to either '0' for off, or '2' for on.
Did not remedy the problem set to "0"
Yes, I have made registry changes before according to posts on the web.
Always set a restore point before doing so just in case I goofed.

I was able to get to this via the external keyboard which does toggle the numlock on and off.

DustSailor · 29 Dec 2011

I'm thinking that perhaps one of those changes might have effected this without you knowing it. There is little reason to edit a registry unless you use a very trustful source, and what you are changing is small. That is why most say it is so dangerous. Did you follow those tutorials that I've posted? what antivirus are you running?

WizzardOne · 29 Dec 2011

At work right now, I'll try your SFC scan and restore the PC to before changes were made then repost if that worked.

WizzardOne · 30 Dec 2011

Issue resolved!, but not the way you might think. Before doing anything else to the Laptop, I downloaded a free program I read about "Keymapper". It said the program would allow you to choose any key and reassign it or disable it. Since I really didn't care about the numlock key being disabled or not, I ran the program, disabled the numlock key and rebooted. No numlock key coming on at power up, no external keyboard needed to get out of problem, built in keyboard working just fine, and guess what, the numlock key can be toggled on/off without any problems whatsoever to any keyboard or numeric keypad functions! TADA! I have no idea what was done to correct the problem using this program, I can only assume that it overwrote a corrupted registry entry and made the Toshiba come back to life. My thanks to DustSailor for all the "push" to get to the bottom of this.

DustSailor · 30 Dec 2011

lol Wiz,

Sorry for pushing, some of us nerds get passionate about this. Some yell for their sports teams to win, I cheer on others to fix their computer (though, USC [Cali] football is like the best college sports team of all time).

Thats a cool solution, hadn't thought of that. I didn't know that would work as it sounded like the key was locked on during boot. I'll have to remember this. It still boggles my mind not knowing why the key was like that. I thought it was a laptop for some reason, wonder if switching the keyboard would do anything.

Glad its working for you now though!