Keyboard Not Working?

[Vedrix]

I've decided to play Skyrim again, since it's been several months. One thing I noticed on start-up is that my keyboard doesn't work for Skyrim. It works for everything else, including the Steam in-game overlay, but not the game itself. I've uninstalled and reinstalled, removed and added mods and tried everything. Was pretty frustrating.

Today I noticed if I open the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab) then close it, the game now registers keystrokes! I'm using the experimental Steam versions, is this common that Steam breaks the games? Would you guys recommend not using Steam test clients? Wish I figured this out before removing and reinstalling everything....

[Uncle64]

Do you have one controller attached to your Pc?

[Vedrix]

Originally posted by Uncle64SwE:

Do you have one controller attached to your Pc?

No I don't use controllers.

[Uncle64]

Turn off Steam overlay and test. I have run the Steam Beta to and it was not so fun some times.

[Vedrix]

Sounds good I'll give it a shot, thanks!

[MageThis]

Keyboard problems may often be solved by using the windows keyboard configurator. In the search box type "osk" to see your native kb layout. (Onscreen Keyboard).
Aside from that it is important that your OS kb language matches Skyrim language... you can google that.

[Moon]

OMG, I spent hours trying to figure out why all of the sudden Skyrim didn't react to any keybaord input anymore... and it turns out it Steam's overlay is at fault!
Btw. just turning the overlay off didn't have any affect for me - maybe if I had restarted Steam which I didn't - but when I turned the overlay back on, started it in Skyrim and then closed it again (the overlay, by using ESC if that makes any differences) Skyrim finally reacted to keyboard input again!
Uncle64, thank you oh so very much for the suggestion!

[Vedrix]

Yeah it's definitely related to the overlay and not keyboard related. Hopefully Steam fixes their broken system sooner than later... then again pressing shift+tab twice isn't that difficult either :P

[Moon]

If you *know* the overlay is at fault and you *know* all you have to do is "shift+tab twice", yes not a huge problem. Then again with a game like mod-it-until-it-crashes-Skyrim the overlay (or Steam client in general) isn't really one the first suspects.

[Vedrix]

Originally posted by Moon:

If you *know* the overlay is at fault and you *know* all you have to do is "shift+tab twice", yes not a huge problem. Then again with a game like mod-it-until-it-crashes-Skyrim the overlay (or Steam client in general) isn't really one the first suspects.

Yea, I know the pain of trying to find the one mod that broke it. Ended up re-downloading and installing everything and gave up several times. Randomly I was answering a message on Steam and notice it worked after hours and hours of trying.

[RuThaN666]

Turn off Raptr fixed problem for me.

[Painge]

Turning off raptr, fixed had a similar issue with raptr when trying to open steam overlay in borderlands 2

[c_gen]

Okay, people. I have this exact same problem. Mouse is working. Keyboard is not. I tried disconnecting my controllers. Didn't work. Went into skyrimprefs.ini and turned off the gamepad. Didn't work. I turned of Steam Overlay. Didn't work. I went into the overlay and exited it. Also didn't work. A combination of most of these. Didn't work. I am getting really annoyed at this game at the moment. Please someone help me.

[MageThis]

Originally posted by c_gen:

Okay, people. I have this exact same problem. Mouse is working. Keyboard is not. I tried disconnecting my controllers. Didn't work. Went into skyrimprefs.ini and turned off the gamepad. Didn't work. I turned of Steam Overlay. Didn't work. I went into the overlay and exited it. Also didn't work. A combination of most of these. Didn't work. I am getting really annoyed at this game at the moment. Please someone help me.

After any of the above attempts did you ever exit all programs properly and then cold boot (power off) your computer? If you disconnected your controller and did not cold boot, for example, it is entirely possible Windows did not enumerate the h/w change so a possible fail and then you move on to the next fix?
Also, if you have a gaming keyboard you are subject to more issues. Check that no s/w was loaded related to your keyboard by checking "msconfig" and disabling all unneccessary programs that load on boot.

[coldercake]

Sorry for reviving a dead forum but,none of this works for me.

[bingy]

This worked for me:

1. Go to the following folder in My Documents\My Games\Skyrim.
2. Locate and right-click on "SkyrimPrefs.ini".
3. Select the "Open With..." option and select a text editor like Notepad.
4. Locate the line "bGamepadEnable=1" and change it to "bGamepadEnable=0".