laptop keyboard problems

[snorkie]

some of the keys on my laptop keyboard have stopped working. Critically, all the passwords to the accounts use at least one non functioning key so I can't get at anything that's on it.

If I can beg/borrow or steal a USB keyboard & plug that in will it work straight away, or would I need to do some setup for it does anyone know?

Laptop runs XP btw.

Most USB keyboards will run without drivers on XP. The "extra" fluff keys might not work but your standard Querty / Number Pad and F-Keys should all be OK.
If you need to type the password in to logon plug the keyboard in before you power the machine on.
Zebradad.

Thanks zebradad - I'll try & get hold of one then.

If you need to use your passwords before you can get hold of a keyboard, you can try finding a document you already have saved which contains the characters you need & C&P them to form your password, then C&P the whole thing into the password box

Thanks all! I now have a usb keyboard & it works fine . Before it arrived ds created a super administrator account with lots of priviledges & changed all the account passwords so I could log on. (Scarily easy actually - made me realise how little security there really is). I still couldn't reply to this before as there were too many duff keys for a coherent post.

Rusty, one of the non-fuctioning keys was the control one, so cut & paste wasn't possible (I have used that method in the past when the odd key isn't working) - but I couldn't access any documents before logging on in any case- this time. Most fustrating.