Programming-Is-Fun.com

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I have an Acer Aspire 5051 with Windows XP installed, and its keyboard and touch pad stopped working suddenly. Suddenly means I did nothing on it, and its keyboard and touch pad just stopped working. Plugging external mouse and keyboard can work, but not for many programs. The laptop become extremely sluggish and unusable.


My first opinion is, it is the software problem. So I restart the laptop in Safe Mode, and try to use System Restore to two days earlier. Sadly, this did not help.

My second thought is it was infected with some unwanted programs. I go through all start up programs (Regedit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE> Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Run), and remove all unnecessary programs. Restart. The same problem remains.

Then, I use Task Manager to remove almost all running program to see which is the culprit. Still, no program was detected.

Hmm, final way, I reformat the laptop. And you know what, the Windows installation hang during the Device Detection. Okay, it is now the hardware problem.

I called Acer Tech Support, and surprisingly understand that this is a common problem in Acer laptops. I get the following procedure from him:

1. Unplug power supply.
2. Remove battery.
3. Hold down power button for 60 seconds.
4. Plug in power supply (don't put in the battery).
5. Power on the laptop.

According to the tech guy, for some Acer models, the BIOS will be accidentally flashed when there is a surge in electric current, either by faulty battery or some USB devices with static charge are plugged in. Doing the above procedure will restore the BIOS to the factory settings, and hence solve the problem.

I did the procedure, and now the laptop is running perfectly again.