How To Unlock keyboard on Dell laptop [SOLVED]

You discovered your keys aren’t working and now you are wondering the ways you can unlock the keyboard on your dell laptop. A keyboard is bound to have a problem one way or another because it is a computer device on its own.

A locked keyboard will definately prevent you from turning on wireless capability on your Dell laptop with use of the shortcut keys.

Before I reveal the methods to you, I want to show you why or what caused you to have a locked keyboard on your dell laptop.

Why Your Dell Laptop Keyboard is Locked

There are several reasons why your dell laptop keyboard is locked but you will find the most common reasons below.

These are the reasons:

1. Fn Lock.
2. Num Lock.
3. Outdated keyboard driver.
4. Dead wireless keyboard battery.
5. Damaged keyboard.

1. Fn Lock

Your Dell laptop’s Fn key is known as the function key on your keyboard that gives you the option to change settings or toggle features by tapping a combination of keys. It’s possible to accidentally lock the “Fn” key when you drop your dell laptop or your pet sits on your keyboard.

The Fn key is located usually beside the windows logo button on your keyboard.

Whenever you press a function key like the F keys at the top of your Dell keyboard to either increase or decrease your brightness or volume, they can respond just like they should without the need of holding the Fn key.

If you are facing a situation where the all the F keys at the top of your keyboard doesn’t respond when you click them, this is how you know the Fn key is required and need to be clicked simultaneously.

All you simply need to do is to press and hold the Fn key first and then click on the primary key for your dell laptop to recognise the command.

2. Num Lock

Num Lock can also be referred to as a Numeric Lock which is a key that can be found on the numeric keypad on your dell keyboard.

The Num lock key is like the Caps Lock and Scroll Lock key which gives you the ability to turn off the numeric keypad entirely.

You can find the Num lock key by the top right-hand side of your dell keyboard, and is commonly identified with a closed padlock.

There’s a built it LED on the Num lock which signifies if the Num lock key is turn on or off. Although, you may not find this feature on every Dell laptop, but it is worth mentioning.

Most people might begin to get worried when they notice that the number pad on their dell keyboard isn’t working and you may be among this people.

What you should understand is that whenever the right section of your Dell keyboard seems to be locked or not working, it may be an indication that your Num lock key is disabled and needs to be enabled.

3. Outdated Keyboard Driver

Every device connected to your dell laptop must have a driver installed on your Dell laptop and the reason for this is to help your computer understand and recognize the device that is connected to it.

Sometimes when a driver is not installed properly or outdated, this situation confuses your Dell computer to react negatively and not recognizing the device at all.

In this situation, your Dell keyboard may be the culprit. Chances are that your keyboard drivers are corrupted and requires troubleshooting.

It is important to inspect your keyboard drivers just to know if they truly are corrupted so that you can fix them.

An uncomplicated way to fix your Dell keyboard driver is to simply uninstall it and reinstall it back. After you are done reinstalling, you should restart your Dell. Your keyboard drivers will be reinstalled the moment your Dell laptop restart.

4. Dead Wireless Keyboard Battery

This section is dedicated to those users that uses a wireless keyboard with their Dell laptop.

The common problem accompanied with a wireless keyboard is the battery. It’s very easy to forget to replace or recharger a wireless keyboard.

When the battery of a wireless keyboard is dead or low, it can cause the keyboard to misbehave when in use. You may experience your keys being stuck or not functioning at all.

Anyone going through this might think that their keyboard is locked or not working which isn’t this case.

The simple way to fix this problem is by replacing the wireless keyboard battery or charging it

5. Damaged Keyboard

Sometimes it is easier to just face the truth. If you have tried every method to unlock your dell keyboard and it’s still not working, maybe you should accept the fact that you have bad keyboard.

Dropping your laptop and spilling water on your dell keyboard can damage your keyboard.

Before concluding if you have dead keyboard, I suggest you try all the troubleshooting method i am going to show you below.

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How To Unlock Keyboard On Dell Laptop

There are different methods to unlock your Dell keyboard and i have provided the most important guides below to help you quickly.

How to unlock keyboard on Dell laptop:

1. Unlock Dell Fn key.
2. Unlock Num Lock.
3. Update Keyboard Diver.
4. Drain Dell Laptop Static Electricity.
5. Replace Dell Keyboard.

1. Unlock Dell Fn Key

This Method is to help you Unlock your dell keyboard by Unlocking your Fn key

Method 1

1. Press and hold the Fn key located close to the windows logo key
2. While holding the Fn key, tap the Num Lock key at the upper right-hand corner of the keyboard to unlock the Fn key.

if this method doesn’t work, press and hold Fn and Esc key to unlock the Fn key

Method 2

1. Hold down the Fn key and tap the F3 key to bring up the Dell battery monitor screen.
2. Tap Fn and F10 together to eject the disk drive.

Method 3

1. Hold down the Fn key and tap the up arrow key to increase the screen’s brightness, and press the down arrow key to decrease the screen’s brightness.
2. Now tap on one of the keys to increases or decreases the brightness to its maximum or minimum.

Method 4

1. Click on the Fn key while tapping on the Page Up key to increase the dell laptop’s volume. Use the Page Down key to lower the volume.

Method 5

1. Press and hold F2 and Fn key to turn on or off the laptop’s wireless card
2. Press and hold F1 and Fn key to put the laptop into hibernate mode

2. Unlock Num Lock

If the number keys by the right-hand side of your dell keyboard are the only keys not working, then it means your dell keyboard Num Lock is locked and needs to be unlocked.

To unlock the Num Lock key,

Locate the Num Lock key by your top right-hand side for your laptop keyboard. On the key is written Num Lock, clicking on it should unlock the Num Lock Key.

Most times, you might need to hold Fn and the Num Lock key to unlock the Num Lock key.

3. Update Keyboard Driver

Your keyboard driver might be outdated and needs to me updated.

To update your Keyboard driver,

1. Click on the Windows logo key and search for device manager
2. Run device manager
3. Once it opens, locate keyboards and click on the drop-down
4. Depending on the number of drivers in the drop-down list, you will have to update everything.
5. Right-click on one the drivers and click update
6. A message will pop up asking you how you want to search for your battery drivers, select Search automatically for updated driver software.
7. Now let windows search for you drivers automatically
8. If your drivers are not up to date, update your drivers and restart your laptop. If otherwise, Proceed to the next step.

4. Drain Dell Laptop Static Electricity

This method is highly recommended and works for most people

To perform this method,

1. Turn off your dell laptop
2. Unplug your Dell charger and remove your dell battery. If your laptop is using an inbuilt battery, open your laptop with a screwdriver and carefully detach the battery cable
3. Now hold your Power button for 40 to 50 seconds
4. Reconnect your battery and charger
5. Turn on your laptop

5. Replace Dell Keyboard

At this point if your dell laptop keyboard isn’t working, I suggest you replace it.

But before you replace it, seek the help of a professional to help you diagnose your laptop properly and confirm if really your keyboard needs to be replaced.

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FAQs

Why is my Dell keyboard not typing?

The reason your Dell Keyboard is not typing is because you may be experiencing a corrupted driver or a damaged keyboard. Keyboard drivers can suddenly go bad with you being aware.

And when you are unaware, you may think that your Dell keyboard is locked or not working like it should.

Your keyboard drivers can get corrupted when you install a new software on your Dell laptop. This can happen when you download a software from an untrusted website.

If have downloaded any software recently, you should consider uninstall it because it could be the reason why your Dell laptop isn’t typing.

In another aspect, when your keyboard dell laptop refuse to type, this could be because the keyboard is already damaged.

You may have spilled some type of liquid on your dell keyboard in the past or you may have let your Dell laptop dropped on the floor.

Whatever the case may be, you will have to replace your Dell keyboard to get it working again.

How do you unlock a locked keyboard on a Dell laptop?

The best way to unlock a Dell laptop is to take note of the following:

• Num Lock Key.
• Fn Key.
• Caps Lock.

The idea here is to identify among the options which is locked.

The common key that is locked is the Fn key and the way you can unlock it is to simply hold down the Fn key + Esc to either enable or disable it.

The caps lock key is straightforward because it becomes obvious when it is disabled. Simple tap on the caps lock key to unlock or lock it.

If you notice that you are unable to type by the right side of your keyboard where the number pad is, this could be because of a disabled num lock key.

All you must do is to enable the num lock key located by the right-hand side of your dell keyboard.

How do I turn my keyboard back on my Dell laptop?

If you would like to re enable your Del keyboard, all you must do is go to device manager on your laptop and then right click on your keyboard driver and select enable.

And if you notice your dell keyboard is still disabled, you should right click on your keyboard driver in device manager and then uninstall all the keyboard driver.

Restart your dell laptop immediately you are done uninstall so that they driver can reinstall back to your computer when it finishes booting up.

Conclusion

To wrap this up,

With these methods above that shows you how you can unlock keyboard on your dell laptop, I believe, by now you must have resolved your problem.

If you are considering replacing your keyboard, I suggest you consult a professional first to help you properly check your dell keyboard and let you know if you should replace it.