Loss of Number Pad Function

Hope one of you guys can help on this one. One of my co-workers accidently pressed the wrong combination of keys and has lost the operation of his keyboard number pad. I think he accidently programmed something into the keyboard that we need to remove. The Num Lock light is on but no input is recognized. He contacted our agency's Help Desk and Dell, both without success. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

What computer model?

For the impatient, the following would reset any mappings. This assumes that there are no hardware issues.

1. Go to a working computer. It should be the same operating system, but need not be the same computer model.

2. Start, Run, regedit

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\KeyBoard Layout

3. Right click on the key value: Scancode Map and select Export

4. Take the created file to the problem machine.

5. Manually create a System Restore point.

6. Open regedit on the problem machine. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard

Right click on the keyvalue: InitialKeyboardIndicators and select Modify.
Set the value to 2

6. Now double click the file you created earlier, and agree to a registry merge.

Save all settings, reboot and test.

Remember that any keyboard remapping would only apply to the user logged on when the change was made. In other words, if you logon the problem machine under a different username the problem should not reappear if it is a keyboard remapping issue. If the problem persists, it is a hardware issue of some kind. As suggested above, examine the status of all toggle keys. Scroll Lock, any key at the end of the Function key row that says something like F lock.

 

RE: Number Keypad Problems

Bill,
Thanks a lot for your reply. The machine is a Dell Optiplex GX270 and we have several of the same model / OS around here. After reading your remarks about mapping being a user specific function, I logged onto his machine under my name and the number pad works fine, so it does seem to be a keyboard mapping and not a hardware problem. If I have time, I will try your solution tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Thanks a lot.

 

Thank you for testing and ruling out possible hardware issues.
Since you have a valid username without the issues, logon as that user rather than on a different machine and follow the instructions earlier.

In essence: create the registry Export as working user, and do the import with a logon as the problem user. Remember a reboot is required to see if it helped.

Best regards.