Keyboard fails when battery is inserted

[venik]

I have a T43p (2668 PDU, XP, SP3). It used to work just fine, other than its known tendency to overheat and the cooling fan that failed after 3 years and was replaced (it still tends to overheat, even with the new fan). When I insert a battery (regardless of whether the AC power is still plugged in or not), several of the keys on the lowest row of the keyboard and the ENTER key stop working. I reinstalled the driver, reinstall SP3, but nothing cured it.
I used to be able to use this machine on its battery, but now obviously I cannot.
Any help will be appreciated.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Sounds like a hardware issue. Does reseating the keyboard connector help?

[Neil]

I had never before heard of such a thing as this, until a couple of weeks ago when I was given an Acer TravelMate laptop because the owner couldn't get it to work. He thought it had a bad HDD. The really strange thing about this Acer is that they keyboard and touchpad would not work at all in Windows with the battery installed, but would work with Linux. Remove the battery and the keyboard and touchpad work fine in Windows too.

I don't know what the real issue is, but it's the strangest thing...

[venik]

I do not know how to reset the KB connector, but since the TP works fine on AC it seems irrelevant. Do I have to disassemble the tp to reset the kb connector?

[Harryc]

**Your duplicate thread on the same topic was deleted. We do not allow duplicate (cross) posting on the forums. Please read the rules. Thank-you.

[Neil]

Do I have to disassemble the tp to reset the kb connector?

No, only three or four screws, and lift the keyboard. It has a cable with the connector at the end. Lift the connector by it's tab to remove it from the system board. Wouldn't hurt to blow compress air on the connectors, then re-connect them. Making sure to get a good firm connection. You don't have to put everything back together to test, just in case you want to have a look around, or retry the keyboard connection.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Here's the detailed T43p disassembly guide:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 58791.html

[venik]

Thanks for the KB information. I'll try that.
Sorry for cross-posting, but I accidentally posted this here instead of the correct forum, which is T4x.