Escaping ununtended keyboard locking

I found my laptop's keyboard was suddenly not responding. Have had to borrow an external USB keyboard in order to write this.
Looked at the MS guidance about keyboard locking but unchecking "Allow Windows to automatically lock your device when you're away" does not firce it to unlock it when already locked. What is the quickest way to escape from this predicament?

Hi there, Julian, welcome.

Open Device Manager, have a look here and tell us if you have any exclamation points or errors next to where the Keyboard is listed.







To open Device Manager in Windows 11, you can press the Windows key and the X key simultaneously, then select "Device Manager" from the menu, or type "devmgmt.msc" in the Run dialog box (Windows key + R) and press Enter.

Some HP laptops, you can press and hold the right shift key for about 8 seconds to wake it. Or you could try pressing the power button once (don’t hold it, just press) and see if it wakes.