Thinkpads Forum

This is an odd one that my parents T61 is doing.

I don't quite understand what is happening.

There are some times where the keyboard won't work in Windows, or the trackpoint. The mouse works and if you plug in a USB keyboard, that will work.

However, when this happens, you can reboot (not turn off) and boot into Debian and it works with no problems. Reboot and go back to windows and it won't work.

This doesn't always happen, but when it does, my parents have to reboot 3 or 4 times to get it to work.

When it does pick up the keyboard, there isn't a problem and it doens't stop working.

This happens about 1 in 4 times when my parents try to use the computer.

You could have a bad keyboard, but I have seen this on Early T61 models, usually with a build date before september of 2007 and I think it was an issue with windows being compatible with the bios as I was never able to reproduce the problem after a bios update.

However, I never recommend updating a bios on an unstable system, if it fails, your board will be useless.

If the system is stable then I'd update your bios if it's date is prior to 2009, actually I always install middleton bios on all my T61 systems as soon as I get them and they pass testing, but I'd say it's more likely you have a hardware problem. You can try reseating the ribbon cable on the keyboard, that might help or if you want a keyboard I have some good used ones starting at $10.

If the machine works fine in Linux I'd backup, wipe and reload Windows to eliminate it being a software problem.

Nuke-and-pave is trivial to do and clean installs run better anyway. I look for excuses to do fresh Winstalls.

I'd use an external keyboard and mouse for the reinstall "just in case" then unplug them afterwards.