Hi,
I've run into a rather bizzare (although luckily extremely infrequent) problem with my Toshiba Satellite laptop (running SuSE 10.2): the keyboard periodically appears to almost completely loose power - but everything else functions normally (including the integrated touchpad mouse). This phenomenon usually occurs immediately after I try to bring the computer out of standby, but today it appeared after I'd just left the thing running for a couple of hours.
I should probably explain how I came to the conclusion that this problem has something to do with the keyboard being underpowered: I discovered that when I press the Caps Lock key (when the keyboard isn't functioning), the embedded led in the Caps Lock key does light up - but it's very very dim. Interesting, eh?
One final note: I've found that I can usually fix the problem by putting the computer into standby again. When I "wake it up," the keyboard usually functions normally (of course, getting the computer into standby without being able to type commands is a bit of a problem...)

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jordan

Do you have a Touchpad on your laptop?

If you mean a touchpad mouse, then yes, I do. But it works fine even when the keyboard is on the fritz.

Okay - I still don't have an explanation, but I do have a better idea of what causes the problem now (and also how to prevent it from happening). It seems that the problem is triggered by trying to bring the computer out of suspend mode very shortly after it has been suspended (within 1 minute, say). Though I don't pretend to know much about the minutia of electronic circuitry, I'm guessing there's a capacitor or something somewhere that needs time to discharge, and that trying to turn the computer on too soon causes the keyboard controller to get confused.

Interesting, eh?