Question Delicate situation. No OS, keyboard and USB ports not working.

[qosmonaft]

I've put myself in this really delicate situation. I have this old HP EliteBook 850G1. Some time ago my mother spilled drink on it and the keyboard is not working anymore. Since then we use it with USB keyboard.

Today I decided to install pop os on it because win10 is running too slow. I tested live version from a flash drive and everything was running fine. After installing successfully I couldn't boot from the hard drive so I decide to check the settings in the BIOS.

I probably did something wrong when checking the boot settings because now the USB ports don't work. They don't recognize USB keyboard or the flash drive.

So I have laptop without OS, without working keyboard and without USB ports...

Any advice how can I fix this?

Update: I tried disconnecting and connecting the BIOS battery so it can reset but the laptop is still not reading the keyboard

 

[GeorgeIP]

• If it’s the BIOS THE CMOS battery may have died making the BIOS unreachable. Replace the battery.
• Look up the Fx key that opens the BIOS before booting. Reset as needed or take the option that sets the factory-known settings that should work to get you started.

 

[qosmonaft]

Maybe it's not clear from my post but I can't access the bios because the laptop keyboard isn't working neither I can use external keyboard because the USB ports are not responding.

 

[GeorgeIP]

It may be that the "Fx" commands can only come from the on-board keyboard.
If your on-board keyboard is dead, you may just have to replace it before you can do anything to restore the PC to operation.
Sorry, it's my best advice. -- George --