Highly strange bootup issue

[chameleon23]

So I went to someone's home to fix their computer because their mouse and keyboard weren't working. I thought this was going to be easy. I first bootup the computer and it goes into windows and sure enough the keyboard and mouse do not work at all. I have to force shutdown.

It's a USB keyboard and a wireless mouse on a USB receiver. Note: the computer only has USB ports, no PS/2 ports (Dell).

I open the computer and pop the CMOS battery out and put it back in thinking BIOS is having an issue setting up components so I reset them this way. Now I turn on the machine and it says Keyboard failure, something about Floppy seek failure and low voltage on CMOS battery. Then it says press F1 to continue or F2 for setup. Now usually we all know that even when it says this the keyboard still works, but not in this case (I tried plugging the keyboard and mouse into a different computer and they work just fine).

I goto the store and pickup a new CMOS battery and a PCI card with USB ports on it. Put them both in and still same issues. Keyboard is now on the PCI USB ports and still won't work. I tried all the USB ports on the computer and restarted every time. I thought maybe the front ports will work and only some of the back USB ports fried, but nothing. I can't pass BIOS to get into Windows even.

I suspect this is a motherboard issue but I welcome any opinions.

Thank you.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Sure sounds like the USB controler is dead. In which case the BIOS may not be getting threw POST since it can't find a KB.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: chameleon23
So I went to someone's home to fix their computer because their mouse and keyboard weren't working. I thought this was going to be easy. I first bootup the computer and it goes into windows and sure enough the keyboard and mouse do not work at all. I have to force shutdown.

It's a USB keyboard and a wireless mouse on a USB receiver. Note: the computer only has USB ports, no PS/2 ports (Dell).

I open the computer and pop the CMOS battery out and put it back in thinking BIOS is having an issue setting up components so I reset them this way. Now I turn on the machine and it says Keyboard failure, something about Floppy seek failure and low voltage on CMOS battery. Then it says press F1 to continue or F2 for setup. Now usually we all know that even when it says this the keyboard still works, but not in this case (I tried plugging the keyboard and mouse into a different computer and they work just fine).

I goto the store and pickup a new CMOS battery and a PCI card with USB ports on it. Put them both in and still same issues. Keyboard is now on the PCI USB ports and still won't work. I tried all the USB ports on the computer and restarted every time. I thought maybe the front ports will work and only some of the back USB ports fried, but nothing. I can't pass BIOS to get into Windows even.

I suspect this is a motherboard issue but I welcome any opinions.

Thank you.

This is what it looks like to me:

Legacy USB is now defaulted to off in the BIOS from the CMOS battery being removed. You could probably install an add in card with PS2 connectors and use them to get into the BIOS and enable " USB Legacy Support ".

pcgeek11

 

[MadeToServeHIM]

If you can't yet figure out a solution, flashing the BIOS to it's original factory state would fix the problem if it weren't a hardware issue, but in this case, that would require some basic keyboard usage.


PCGeek said:
"Legacy USB is now defaulted to off in the BIOS from the CMOS battery being removed"


I am agreeing with pcgeek on this one. You can get a PCI card that has a ps/2 controller on it fairly cheap, like here: http://www.buy.com/retail/prod...458&listingid=30732984
Granted you can get ps/2 working, enabling legacy USB will be no problem.
Now, with your other problems. If the PC is saying floppy seek error, this leads me to this conclusion. I am guessing that there isn't a floppy drive installed on the computer, but the BIOS, being reverted to default, has manually added a floppy drive. A simple change in the BIOS will change that. If it does have a floppy drive, more than likely it is set for a different floppy size (eg. 5 1/4") and simply needs to be changed to 3 1/2"

In the matter of the Battery, once you replaced the battery, did that error occur again?
Let me know how this works out

------------------
A Mediocre President gives you about as much satisfaction as winning 10 cents in the lottery.

 

[chameleon23]

Guys thank you for the replies. I agree on trying the PS/2 solution however I went on newegg to buy one and look at the reviews!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...=%28keywords%29&Page=1

Apparently people with Dell XPS machines are having this same problem and when they plugged this PCI card in the BIOS would not recognize the PS/2 ports.

 

[corkyg]

Can you put the ball in Dell's court?

 

[chameleon23]

Yea that was my next idea, looks like I have to