We were using the laptop earlier, when the battery died. When we plugged it in most ketys on the left side won't work. If any one has any ideas please PM me.

And before a mod politely reminds me about other internet computer forums, which I have contacted, I thought I would try here to.

Many thanks

PG

No specs...?

Spec's good heaven no, it's worn contacts for years.

My wife was using the laptop when the battery went flat. After plugging it in and restarting the machine, certain keys have stopped working:
Both shift keys, 1,2 q,w,a,s,z,x. tab key,capslock,esc. The laptop is an Acer Aspire 5920, running Windows Vista Home Premium.
The only way I could get back to desktop was to set the laptop to 'on screen keyboard' at start up as the password has a 1 in it. I've checked regional settings and the format is English (UK), Location is UK, keyboard is UK. I tried a system restore via Accessories and that failed.

Any help gratefully received

Our resident geek is out getting boozed up.

And I am about as good with computers as I am at kayaking.

The perp' of the event has gone to bed, so looks like I'm in for a long night.... still there plenty of beer in the fridge

Well, maybe try prising off the cover at the top of the keyboard (with the on/off switch, etc) and then unscrewing the retaining screws of the keyboard. Then gently lift the thing out and check the tape wire that connects the keyboard to the computer is properly inserted.
I had this with my Acer Arsespire1310 and just by undoing the clip that holds the tape in, reseating the tape and pushing down the clip, it fixed it.

If you still require help, feel free to email my company directly through the links below.

This was provided by a US Acer forum, and it worked.

turn off, remove battery, remove AC.

turn over, remove thermal door.

with battery bay to you, look in the upper right corner of the opening. You should see an unused minicard connector. right behind it is a 2pin, black and red, twisted cable. use some tweezers to gently pull up on the cable. This cable is the CMOS battery cable. once removed, let unit sit for about 3 minutes. plug cable back in and power unit up.

is your keyboard working? if so, update your bios to 3813.

Just gotta figure how to find/check the BIOS

Usually you can check the BIOS version by hitting a key like Del, F12, F2 etc.. as soon as you switch it on (you should get a message telling you which one to enter 'set up'). That very simple looking menu that comes up is your BIOS.

With regards to updating it, there are usually several ways. Sometimes manufacturers give you a handy little windows tool that will flash your BIOS in windows, other times you need to burn a boot CD and then restart your computer. Never had an Acer so not sure how they handle it

Thanks Castro, I checked and they are 3811 and should be 3813. I downloaded the new settings from the Acer website, the svaed them in zipped and un-zipped format onto a USB stick. Rebooted the machine with the stick in, but got no messages. Shut down and re-booted again and the stick did flash a few times, took it out rebooted again, Checked the BIOS and it is still at 3811.

The machine seems ok, what are the ramification of running with the older setting?

There should be none unless the new version of the BIOS fixes a bug which you currently have. Some may even argue, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Maybe it fixes this keyboard issue, so worth doing anyhow if users reccommend it. But generally id agree, if your computer is running fine then leave it, unless you know the BIOS adds anything major feature-wise.

It was the CMOS battery thing that fettled the keyboard, but that resets the clock & Bios to the factory default...2007. I rest the clock... Mr Babbage that I am.... not, but the BIOS is still 3811, and hasn't updated to 3813, but I can't say I'm noticing any diff' at all in the speed of the machine etc.

You wouldnt notice a speed increase anyhow.

where there instructions on the acer site for bios upgrade? never heard of bios upgrade by usb before! my asus upgrade via a utility under windows, and I think my cube has an option in bios setup (hitting delete when you turn it on) but I'm not a pc geek anymore so maybe things have moved on.

sounds like the bios upgrade fixes your keyboard bug, so don't be suprised if it happens again, personally I'd upgrade

Mr Goose, there should be a Windows utility that will perform the BIOS update with a minimum of hassle. What are the instructions on Acer's web site?

Technology has passed you by, but no worries a new bus passes every few months...

bb2 + PG:

BIOS upgrades historically would have been performed via a floppy disc. in the BIOS there will be a setting for 'boot order' where you can choose to boot from the hard disc first or then the floppy disc or another disc. depending on the age of your laptop there may be an option to boot from 'external media' this will be the USB stick.

PG: FIRST OFF understand what you are about to do. you are going to fundamentally change at a very low level the way the OS talks to the hardware. BIOS upgrades are recommended on very rare occasions. and they can be risky (on rare occasions), making you machine unusable though loss of data is rare. the hardware bug you have found: battery die, wake up, left keys dead; will be fixed by this bios upgrade. it is possible that you could live with it as it is, but you might encounter the same issue again. its your call (c;


if you have this option boot from external device option then i would make sure you wipe the stick first, then copy ONLY the upgrade to it. then follow the acer instructions. otherwise copy it to a floppy and install from there (change boot order appropriately) assuming you have one (c;

i don't know about the windows bios installer mentioned above. if this is available to you then i would probably go for that. less messing about in the bios settings.

I think this will be my first and last Acer, as the customer service is bad enough to be French.

The laptop is now running again, albeit that the BIOS has reverted to the 3811 version from Mar 2007, not bad considering I bought the poxy thing as a brand new model freshly launch in April 2008. The BIOS was upgraded apparently to 3813 in 2008. The Acer US site, after they sorted the keyboard issue, said yeah do the upgrade, but not how to. I asked the UK Acer site for an idiots guide and they said they wouldn't recomend it, but that 'they' will do it, I have to send them the machine, on top of the carriage I have to send them a check to cover the insured return, plus a cheque for £51.99 initial charge, then they will get an engineer to 'look' at it, then they send me a quote for the upgrade. I can buy a new one for £299 with a higher spec' and back under warranty (this would all have been covered).... chancing b4stards.
I have also found out that the only diff' between the 2 BIOS setting from Acer UK, is a patch to fix a graphic problem that doesn't apply to my model but the previous one... and to turn the fan on sooner to reduce the temp by 5 degrees for better game play, and substantially reduce the battery life.... rant and attempts to make sense of this over.

Thank for you advice & help guys, but my heads officially mince now and I'm now going for a beer.

Goodness grief please DONT send it to them!