2012 MacBook Pro 15" Keyboard, including power button not working

Hi guys,

I have a friend’s 2012 MBP 15” model that is showing the folder with question mark. Which is due to a bad hard disk, I can hear it is stuck… that is not a problem.

However the keyboard including the power button is not working.

But I was once manage to get into internet recovery mode, which meant at that time it worked. So I plugged in an external keyboard using USB. to type WiFi password,

But the external keyboard is not working, except for caps lock key (lights up and shows the caps lock icon in the password box, and enter key (maybe some other keys as well, but not a letter keys).

Trying the external keyboard when turning on the computer don’t work either

Anyone has any idea what might be going on?

Looks like it went to Internet recovery mode the first time, because I removed the disk drive.

I’ve plugged it in, removed it and turned it on the it went to internet recovery again. So the keyboard might be faulty, but it still don't explain why the external keyboard isn't working.