Any reason why my keyboard wouldn't be working on my DELL studio laptop?

Does anything else happen when you try to type?

One of my kitties often walks on my keyboard when she’s trying to get my attention, and I don’t know what it is that she does, but sometimes my keys end up doing very weird stuff and I have to restart. Just a theory.

I don’t think so (?). Pressing “home”, “end”, “delete”, and even backspace doesn’t work.

Very odd.

I was going to say connection (keyboard to motherboard) but the recovery on reboot puzzles me. Is there some kind of power management gone screwy that puts input to sleep ?
Or maybe you’re mechanically manipulating it enough to reboot that a connection is restored ? What happens if you just gently rattle the machine when it’s misbehaving?
You might also try hanging a USB keyboard off the thing and see if that is similarly disabled when the main one is unresponsive. If the USB one is working then it’s your built-in having issues. If the USB one is also unresponsive then there is something disabling keyboard input.

How old is the laptop? If you primarily use the laptop’s built-in keyboard (as you would on your lap, no doubt) then it will wear out. It’s not an expensive item to replace. If it’s still under warranty, talk to Dell about a replacement keyboard. If it’s old / out of warranty, then find a repair shop (any repair shop that you trust) in your area, and they should be able to change out the keyboard while you wait. It should take no more than 10–15 minutes if they have the thing in stock. And it should not be expensive, either. (With my Dell I first noticed that the center keys: I-U-J-N-M were flaky and unresponsive, and the mouse cursor would drift on the screen even when there was no mouse attached and no one at the keyboard. The repair guy that I have used before says this is a common indication of excessive wear.)

Could be an electronics problem in the keyboard or in the computer, or could be a driver problem. I bet it’s a USB keyboard, right? If so, the next time it happens (humor me), unplug the keyboard and plug it into a different USB port and wait a moment to see if it starts working again.

I also have a Dell Studio 17inch, about 13 months old. It’s a fantastic beast of a laptop, it’s only downside being weight and size but I don’t mind that at all. I have your problem with the keyboard failure too, I find the right CTRL key is the only one that works. I reboot and it’s just fine. This doesn’t bother me much because it only happens to me once every few months. Still the best windows laptop I’ve seen or used. Love my Dell Studio :)