In general, laptop keyboards are more susceptible to wear and tear than their external counterparts. The tiny gaps between keys collect dust particles and build-up. Adding to the problem, its compact form makes it harder to clean.

Besides, dust particles that build-up around and beneath those keys can cause a lot of keyboard problems such as unresponsive, repeating, and stuck keys. The frustrating part is if those problems occur while you’re doing something very important. Aside from dust, such a liquid spill could render a part of your keyboard unusable, that’s another reason to freak out.

If cleaning could no longer solve those problems, replacing it is your last resort. But later, you’ll also find out that a replacement is costly and impractical for you.

So you’ve to look another viable alternative – to connect an external USB keyboard, but then, you will find out that the problem still remains because your laptop’s keyboard is still active but malfunctioning.

Unfortunately, unlike a touchpad that has an enable-disable function, laptop keyboards aren’t designed to have that feature. Now to solve this limitation, our solution is to disable the defective keyboard deliberately by disabling its driver software via Device Manager. Simply follow our steps below and this requires no additional software.

A step-by-step guide on how to disable repeating / stuck keys on a faulty laptop keyboard and add a USB keyboard

Here, you will learn how to disable a faulty laptop keyboard and add a working external keyboard.

Open Device Manager.

– On your keyboard, press Windows + R keys to invoke Run window.

– Type in “devmgmt.msc” and hit enter.



If you’re using Windows 10, you can also use Cortana search box:

– type in “Device Manager” and open.



Note: If certain keys don’t work, you may use “On-Screen keyboard” from Windows. On the Device Manager, a list of devices should appear, on the right pane, look for “Keyboards” and click the arrow behind it, then right-click the device that appears and then click “Update driver.” Under Update Drivers window, click “Browse my computer for driver software.“ Next click “Let me pick a list of available drivers on my computer.” Uncheck “Show compatible hardware.” On this step, you’re about to install an incompatible driver to disable the keyboard. To do that, choose any driver model from the list except your laptop’s keyboard model. Then hit next. An “Update Driver Warning” appears, just hit No. You’ll notice a yellow warning symbol appears on the device’s icon – that’s okay. Using an incompatible driver can turn it into a disabled keyboard. Finally, you can now attach your USB keyboard.

Your newly attached keyboard should work without any issues.

Update driver pop-up

Option to pick a list of available drivers

Update Driver prompt – uncheck “Show compatible hardware”