Problems with Keyboard, Touchpad on Acer Laptops

(If you have a problem, skip this and go straight to how to solve this)

My wife’s Aspire wouldn’t start up after 11 months of service.

The symptoms were:

BIOS errors with two beeps – 0221 Keyboard Error (Hit <F1> to continue)
Upon start up, the touchpad does not work.
When resuming from standby or hibernation, the keyboard freezes.

Acer support suggested a complete factory reset (via Alt-F10). This would have required hours of backup, and subsequent restoration, for what I thought would have been a hardware fault.

A search on Google was quite revealing. This is a common issue with Acer laptops.

Resolution

1. Remove the battery and AC cord.
2. Remove and reseat your RAM modules. (I didn’t have to do this)
3. Replace your covers.
4. Hold down your power button for 1 minute (Battery and AC still disconnected).
5. Replace your AC power (without battery) and turn on.

(Source: Tech Support Forum)

If problem persists, download Synaptics drivers from Acer’s website for your specific machine.

Hours of research, 5 minutes to solve.

Keywords: Acer, Laptop, Aspire, BIOS, Battery, Keyboard, Synaptics, Touchpad