Software · guide

How to fix keyboard not typing when nothing is broken

By Alberto Gulotta · Updated · 12 min read

How to fix keyboard not typing splits into two questions that look identical from the chair: a keyboard that cannot type, and a Windows that has been told to ignore it. Microsoft documents both, and the second one is where to start.

“Turn on the Filter keys switch to set the sensitivity of the keyboard so it can ignore brief or repeated keystrokes.”

Read that as a description of a symptom rather than a feature and the reason it belongs at the top of this page is obvious. Filter keys is a setting whose documented purpose is to make Windows disregard what you type. Switched on unintentionally — and it has a keyboard shortcut of its own — it produces a keyboard that responds to some presses, ignores others, and passes every hardware test you can run on it. Where to look: press Windows logo key + U, or Start → Settings → Accessibility.

Filter keys

ignores keystrokes

Sets keyboard sensitivity “so it can ignore brief or repeated keystrokes”. The one that looks like a broken keyboard.

Sticky keys

changes shortcuts

Lets you “press commands that use multiple keys (such as Ctrl + S) one key at a time”. Shortcuts start behaving oddly rather than not at all.

Toggle keys

adds a sound

Plays a sound “whenever you press the Caps lock, Num lock, or Scroll lock keys”. Harmless, and a useful sign that something in here got switched on.

Table of accessibility settings whose job is to ignore keystrokes, and what each one looks like when on
Four settings that look exactly like a broken keyboard. Figure drawn by AI Tools Primer.

Those three live together in Accessibility settings and they exist for good reasons — they make a computer usable for people who would otherwise struggle with it. The problem is only that one of them is indistinguishable from a fault when it is on and you did not turn it on. Checking takes ten seconds and rules out the entire software half of the question.

And it is not a Windows peculiarity, which is worth knowing if the machine in front of you is not running Windows.

“You may have accidentally set an option that changes how your keyboard operates.”

That is Apple, on a Mac that will not type — the same diagnosis reached independently, by a company with no reason to copy Microsoft’s wording. The setting has a different name: “Make sure Slow Keys is turned off. If Slow Keys is on, you must press and hold a key longer than usual before it’s recognized.” The shape is identical, though — a documented feature whose effect is to disregard keystrokes, switched on by accident, and invisible to every test you can run on the keyboard. Three desktop systems, three names, one trap. GNOME’s version names a symptom the other two do not: “Turn on bounce keys to ignore key presses that are rapidly repeated.” A keyboard that drops letters when you type fast and behaves perfectly when you type slowly is describing that setting rather than a fault.

If the switches are off, the question becomes whether the keyboard itself is working, and Microsoft has one step that answers it outright.

“If the device doesn’t appear to work at all (no lights appear on the device when it’s plugged in, or the cursor doesn’t move or doesn’t appear on the screen), connect the device to another PC and make sure the device works on that PC. If the device doesn’t work on the other PC, you might need to replace it.”

Microsoft’s test, and the only step on the page that produces a verdict instead of another thing to try. Two computers, one keyboard, and the answer is whichever one is the odd one out. Microsoft attaches one caveat worth respecting: “some devices won’t work without installing a driver”, so when testing elsewhere, make sure the right driver is on the other machine — otherwise the second PC produces a false result and you replace something that was fine.

The physical checks, with the detail that matters in each

Microsoft’s list, and none of these is “restart and hope”.

The first item on that list is the one people do wrong, and Microsoft’s wording explains why. Unplugging and immediately plugging back in does not do what unplugging is supposed to do — the instruction is to wait while Windows unloads the driver, and only then reconnect. A two-second reconnection often reattaches to the same broken state.

If it is wireless, there are two reset buttons rather than one. Microsoft: “Look on the bottom of the wireless device for a Reset button. Resetting the device will disconnect and then reconnect the wireless connection. There might also be a Reset button on the USB receiver for your device.” The second one is the forgotten half — the little dongle in the port is a device too, and it can be the one that has lost the connection. For USB wireless, the simpler version is “unplugging the USB wireless receiver, waiting for about 10 seconds, and then plugging the USB wireless receiver back into the USB port”. And if the keyboard connects over Bluetooth rather than a receiver, Microsoft sends you to its Bluetooth troubleshooting instead — a different radio with different failures.

If the keyboard passes the other-PC test and the switches are off, what is left is the driver, and Microsoft gives two routes. The automatic one: type check for updates in the search box, open it, and select Check for updates — with the honest caveat that “there might not be any driver updates available”. The manual one: search for Device Manager, find the device, double-click it, then the Driver tab and Update Driver.

What this page will not do is tell you to reinstall Windows, run a registry cleaner, or install a driver-updating tool. None of that is on Microsoft’s page for this problem, and a keyboard is a small enough device that the answer is nearly always in the four paragraphs above.

It also will not cover a laptop keyboard that has had liquid on it. That is a repair question rather than a settings question, and the honest answer to it is not typed.

The guides below take it three ways: the settings that mimic a fault, the tests that produce a verdict, and the neighbouring device that fails in the same way.

Where to start

Three ways in. Take the first one before you touch any cable.

“Some keys work, some do not.”
Check Filter keys — the settings that mimic a fault
“Nothing at all happens.”
Try it on another PC — the test with a verdict
“It is wireless.”
Two reset buttons, not one — wireless and drivers

The settings that mimic a fault

Filter keys ignores keystrokes by design. Sticky keys changes how shortcuts behave. Both are ten seconds to check and rule out half the question.

A monitor that will not displayThe first check is two keys, not a cable — and a splitter can never extend a screen.Open this guide → Copy and paste on a MacWhere a keyboard shortcut that exists everywhere else is missing.Open this guide → Screenshots on WindowsThree screenshot shortcuts already built in, recording on Windows 11 — and where each capture goes.Open this guide → Arrow keys in ExcelScroll Lock, Extend Selection, Add to Selection and a protected sheet: the status bar names the first three by default, and shows nothing for the fourth.Open this guide →

The test with a verdict

One keyboard, two computers, and the answer is whichever is the odd one out. Microsoft attaches the caveat about drivers that makes the test honest.

The printer test pageTwo of them exist, they leave from different places, and each answers one question.Open this guide → Checking a drive’s healthMicrosoft has removed WMIC from supported versions of Windows 11; Get-PhysicalDisk, a PowerShell cmdlet, has a HealthStatus column.Open this guide → A phone speaker with no soundTwo published tests — and the settings that silence a working speaker.Open this guide →

Wireless and drivers

A reset button on the device and possibly another on the receiver, ten seconds unplugged, and two routes to a driver.

Pairing Bluetooth headphonesBoth vendors document one half of this and, for other makers’ headphones, hand the other to the headphones’ own instructions.Open this guide → A printer that says offlineMicrosoft puts reinstalling sixth of seven — and names the setting that hides step three.Open this guide → Factory resetting Windows 11Two options that sound alike and remove very different amounts.Open this guide →

Not covered here. It will not tell you to reinstall Windows or run a cleaner. Neither appears on Microsoft’s page for this problem, and a keyboard is a small enough device that it does not need either.

It will not recommend a driver-updating tool. Microsoft gives two free routes and says plainly that there might not be an update at all.

And it will not cover a keyboard that has had liquid spilled on it. That is a repair question, and the honest answer to it is not typed. What holds instead is simple: every setting named here is the vendor’s own name for it, and nothing on this page asks you to open the machine.

When the keyboard or the screen will not do as it is told

Input that stops arriving, or arrives changed into something you did not type, and the two minutes that tell you whether it is hardware.

The same job, in the other places it comes up
How to turn off autocorrect when it is three settings
Surface keyboard not working, and the step most models lack
How to fix phone screen unresponsive touch, in four steps
Computer monitor display issues, and what each test proves

Sources

  1. Microsoft, Mouse and keyboard problems in Windows — Microsoft Support, applies to Windows 11 and Windows 10 (the hardware checks of unplugging USB cables and waiting for the device driver to be unloaded by Windows before plugging the device back in, trying a different USB port, ensuring a USB hub has power and removing it to connect the device directly, checking that cables are undamaged, checking that battery-powered devices are charged or have fresh batteries, and making sure there is no dirt blocking keys or sensors; the wireless checks of looking for a Reset button on the bottom of the device and possibly on the USB receiver, unplugging a USB wireless receiver and waiting about 10 seconds before plugging it back in, and referring Bluetooth devices to the Bluetooth troubleshooting page; the instruction to connect the device to another PC to check whether it works there, with the note that a device failing on the other PC might need replacing and the caveat that some devices will not work without the correct driver installed; and the two driver routes, through the taskbar search for check for updates and Windows Update, and through Device Manager, the Driver tab and Update Driver) — support.microsoft.com, read 22 August 2026.
  2. Microsoft, Make your mouse, keyboard, and other input devices easier to use — Microsoft Support, Accessibility (the route to Accessibility settings by pressing the Windows logo key + U or selecting Start, Settings, Accessibility; the description of the Sticky keys switch as letting commands that use multiple keys, such as Ctrl + S, be pressed one key at a time for people who have trouble pressing two keys at the same time; the description of the Toggle keys switch as playing a sound whenever the Caps lock, Num lock or Scroll lock keys are pressed; and the description of the Filter keys switch as setting the sensitivity of the keyboard so that it can ignore brief or repeated keystrokes) — support.microsoft.com, read 6 September 2026.
  3. Apple, If your Mac doesn’t respond to key presses — macOS User Guide (the note that an option changing how the keyboard operates may have been set accidentally; the route through the Apple menu to System Settings, Accessibility and Keyboard; the instruction to make sure Slow Keys is turned off together with the statement that when it is on a key must be pressed and held longer than usual before it is recognized; and the parallel instruction to make sure Mouse Keys is off under Pointer Control) — support.apple.com, read 26 August 2026.
  4. GNOME Project, Turn on bounce keys — GNOME Help (that bounce keys are turned on to ignore key presses that are rapidly repeated, with the example of hand tremors causing a key to be pressed several times when it was meant to be pressed once, and the route through the Activities overview to Accessibility, Typing and Typing Assist) — help.gnome.org, read 6 September 2026.

Written by Alberto Gulotta

Founder and editor of AI Tools Primer, writing from Palermo, Italy. Thirty-five years of taking computers apart, starting with a Commodore 64 — the long version is on the about page.

Something wrong on this page? Write to aitoolsprimer@gmail.com and it gets fixed.

Written on 22 August 2026 · last checked 23 September 2026.

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