Lenovo keyboard dead after driver updates

[Haole Boy]

Aloha. Working on a Lenovo Flex 5 1570. Just installed new Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB drive, and a fresh install of Windows 10 1809. Ran Windows Update a few times to pick up any fixes and / or drivers it may need. All of that went OK.

Left the machine on for a few hours and came back and found that the screen did not go blank (should happen after 10 minutes). And when I moved the mouse around it was very jerky movement and there was a ghost of an old window popup (not malicious) on the screen. So, I decided to update drivers using SDIO V1.5.1.700 updated with the latest driver packs.

SDIO found 15 "newer and more optimal drivers". Went ahead and did them all. No errors. But, on reboot the keyboard is dead. No response in the enter password input area and the caps lock light does not work when I press the key.

Plugged in an external keyboard and it works. Shut down machine and ran system restore from the install USB and got my keyboard back. Updated BIOS, then updated drivers again. Same problem.

Searched google and did not find anything helpful (most hits say to update drivers....).

So, does anyone here have any ideas about what is causing this? Full SDIO logs are attached to this post:

Mahalo!

Harry Z

 

[NJW]

Check to see if there's a custom ACPI (for example) driver on the Lenovo support site (and/or if there's an unclaimed/unidentified device in Device Manager). Personally, I'd go to Lenovo before taking SDIO's word for it – I've been burned by blindly accepting 'newer and more optimal' drivers.

OEM-specific customised hardware, with the generic VID & PID, are a thing. Not all original drivers are delivered by Windows Update, especially if they haven't been changed from the original release.

 

[Porthos]

Shut down machine and ran system restore from the install USB and got my keyboard back. Updated BIOS, then updated drivers again. Same problem.

What I would have done at that point not restored, gone to device mgr and uninstalled the keyboard driver only and let windows use the Windows driver.

 

[HFultzjr]

Try an "older" SDIO Driver. I've had to go back a version or 2 a few times, as the newer ones just didn't want to play.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I don't find SDIO as useful on Windows 10. Go to Lenovo and download all the drivers for that unit and use only them. SDIO is great when it works but when it doesn't bail out and do it by hand. You can waste more time trying to make SDIO work rather than making the clients PC work.

 

[Haole Boy]

Check to see if there's a custom ACPI (for example) driver on the Lenovo support site (and/or if there's an unclaimed/unidentified device in Device Manager). Personally, I'd go to Lenovo before taking SDIO's word for it – I've been burned by blindly accepting 'newer and more optimal' drivers.

OEM-specific customised hardware, with the generic VID & PID, are a thing. Not all original drivers are delivered by Windows Update, especially if they haven't been changed from the original release.

Yeah, I've had driver updates brick a machine before, but I thought I would give SDIO a try. Keyboard is active again after running system restore. Lenovo automatic driver update updated 3 drivers and I manually updated the BIOS. I still have strange mouse behavior which is a separate subject, so I'll open a new thread for that if I can't figure it out, and close this one.

Check to see if there's a custom ACPI (for example) driver on the Lenovo support site (and/or if there's an unclaimed/unidentified device in Device Manager). Personally, I'd go to Lenovo before taking SDIO's word for it – I've been burned by blindly accepting 'newer and more optimal' drivers.

OEM-specific customised hardware, with the generic VID & PID, are a thing. Not all original drivers are delivered by Windows Update, especially if they haven't been changed from the original release.

One of the reasons I decided to try SDIO this time is that I don't trust the manufacturer-provided website driver detection algorithms. Many times I've run the Dell system update app on a machine and get different results from the web-based driver update (and also different results from when I run SDIO). So, I don't really trust them, and really don't want to spend the time installing every driver listed on the website just in case there is one that is out of date. Not sure how to solve this. Anyone have any suggestions?

What I would have done at that point not restored, gone to device mgr and uninstalled the keyboard driver only and let windows use the Windows driver.

Good point! I'll have to remember that for the future.

Try an "older" SDIO Driver. I've had to go back a version or 2 a few times, as the newer ones just didn't want to play.

Another good point. But at what point do you decide that you've spent too much time on this?

Mahalo for all the feedback. As always, there is a lot of wonderful experience here on Technibble and I really appreciate you folks sharing your knowledge.

Harry Z

 

[Porthos]

Good point! I'll have to remember that for the future.

What happened to you happens often for me and for one, it has always fixed the issue and 2 sadly I dont have the time to be sure to grab logs for @glennd so he can look into it.

 

[nlinecomputers]

One of the reasons I decided to try SDIO this time is that I don't trust the manufacturer-provided website driver detection algorithm

Which is why I said do it by hand. Look up the model number and grab all the drivers for this model. Install chip drivers first then video and others as needed.

 

[mikeroq]

Which is why I said do it by hand. Look up the model number and grab all the drivers for this model. Install chip drivers first then video and others as needed.

I prefer to download from the manufacturer too. I really only have to do this every so often though. Since most of my reloads are Windows 10 and it pretty much downloads all the drives from Windows update. Outside of that I use MDT so I have a decent driver collection for it to pull from.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I usually use SDIO but when it misdetects I fall back on manual means. I can't bill for procedural frak ups.

 

[NJW]

One of the reasons I decided to try SDIO
...
So, I don't really trust them, and really don't want to spend the time installing every driver listed on the website just in case there is one that is out of date. Not sure how to solve this. Anyone have any suggestions?

(My emphasis.) As @nlinecomputers said, sometimes you have to do some work. Go to the manufacturer's website and look up the model, then pick out the likely candidates from the list of drivers. There's often something specific to the manufacturer/model for things like special keys (wireless switch and special function keys is a common one, for example). If these haven't changed from the initial release, they're unlikely to be published through Windows Update.

 

[Haole Boy]

...If these haven't changed from the initial release, they're unlikely to be published through Windows Update.

I charge by the hour, so I'm always looking for automation tools (like SDIO) to save time. And that did not work this time. Based on your statement that custom OEM drivers might not be provided by Windows Update then logically you should install every driver available on the OEM's website. Does anyone do this?

Also, on this machine, I noticed that a couple of drivers had been released since this machine was built, but they were not installed via Windows Update, so the WU delivery method is not 100% reliable either.

Does it make sense to perhaps use the OEM's install media instead of the Microsoft ISO?

So, what do other folks here do?

As always, I'm trying to learn, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Harry Z

 

[Porthos]

Does it make sense to perhaps use the OEM's install media instead of the Microsoft ISO?

Windows OEM disks are woefully out of date and will take much longer to deal with.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I charge by the hour, so I'm always looking for automation tools (like SDIO) to save time. And that did not work this time. Based on your statement that custom OEM drivers might not be provided by Windows Update then logically you should install every driver available on the OEM's website. Does anyone do this?

On Windows 10 I tend to let WU install what it wants if that isn't getting everything I drag out SDIO. On Win 7 I reverse that SDIO first and then WU. If all that fails I will grab the needed drivers from the OEM.

Also, on this machine, I noticed that a couple of drivers had been released since this machine was built, but they were not installed via Windows Update, so the WU delivery method is not 100% reliable either.

Yep but it isn't always necessary to grab the latest drivers. Many OEM drivers are just repackaged manufacture drivers so they really aren't newer just delayed because DELL had to repackaged them.

If it ain't broke don't fix unless it is addressing a security issue or major bug.

Does it make sense to perhaps use the OEM's install media instead of the Microsoft ISO?

Most of the time that is an image of the system when it comes out of the box. It will have OEM bloatware on it and out of date everything. I try to avoid unless something flat will not work without it or you have a weird end user that is using some of the bloatware crap. And even there usually newer versions on the OEM site.

 

[Porthos]

On Windows 10 I tend to let WU install what it wants if that isn't getting everything I drag out SDIO. On Win 7 I reverse that SDIO first and then WU. If all that fails I will grab the needed drivers from the OEM.

Agreed.

If it ain't broke don't fix unless it is addressing a security issue or major bug.

Same.

Most of the time that is an image of the system when it comes out of the box. It will have OEM bloatware on it and out of date everything. I try to avoid unless something flat will not work without it or you have a weird end user that is using some of the bloatware crap. And even there usually newer versions on the OEM site.

New computers get a fresh install of 10 after I get the OEM drivers. HP's for example have a folder called "swsetup" I copy. Other Mfg's have a similar folder.

Backup
dism /online /export-driver /destination:C:\MyDrivers

Restore

Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\MyDrivers /Recurse

Of course back them up to your usb before nuke.

 

[glennd]

On Windows 10 I tend to let WU install what it wants if that isn't getting everything I drag out SDIO. On Win 7 I reverse that SDIO first and then WU. If all that fails I will grab the needed drivers from the OEM.

agreed.

 

[JoeMcDonalds]

Did you tried booting into safe mode and see if the keyboard is working there. if it is working then you can try running a system restore. that should take care of the dirty update.

 

[TECCS]

I've had this before. i just installed everything other than keyboard and mouse

 

[Haole Boy]

\
New computers get a fresh install of 10 after I get the OEM drivers. HP's for example have a folder called "swsetup" I copy. Other Mfg's have a similar folder.

Backup
dism /online /export-driver /destination:C:\MyDrivers

Restore

Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\MyDrivers /Recurse

Of course back them up to your usb before nuke.

I've never considered anything like this. I need to look at the commands and understand more about this, but it looks like a great idea! Thanx!

And thanks to everyone else for responding. I did a system restore and just updated the drivers detected by the Lenovo website as needing an update. The original issue that led me to believe there was a problem with the video driver went away when I switched mice.

Mahalo.

Harry Z

 

[JoeMcDonalds]

Great , System Restore is very much capable to resolve such issues, always make sure to go ahead and do a system restore from safe mode or SM with networking.

Congrats once again .

Regards