Keyboard not responding at POST

[Mancubus]

:frown: I just finished putting my system together but when
I power on, the screen gives me basic info and says push DEL to enter
setup but when I do, nothing happens. I have tried both ps2 and usb
keyboards. No pins are bent, and I know they both work. I know at
least the ps2 keyboard get power because the lights flash on it at
startup but then nothing.

 

[Head]

This might sound a little odd - do you have the PS2 keyboard plugged into the mouse port?! Some mobos are not well labelled, but the mouse generally goes into the green coloured one .... I have messed this up before, and I got similar results.

 

[Mancubus]

I was pretty sure I had it in the right one but to I tried both to be sure. At this point,
I'm trying to decide if it's my mobo that's bad, cause if it is, I'll need to request an
RMA soon.

 

[Head]

Does the system crash? Do you get into Windows? If you get into windows are your keys working then?

I wonder if something else is going on since both USB and PS2 don't work for you....hmmmm. I will have to think about this.

Did you try tech support at the mobo company?

 

[Mancubus]

I just finished putting my system together so I haven't even formatted the hard drive yet, much less
got windows up and running. I power up and I just get the screen that says the BIOS version, cpu speed and memory and "press DEL to enter setup" It will just chill there all day if I leave it on.

 

[Head]

Do you have a bootable floppy? Put it in and see if you can get to the A prompt - this whole thing just sounds a little weird - gotta be something we can figure out.

 

[Mancubus]

Yes, I have a bootable floppy & boot disk but unfortunately, my floppy is not responding either. The light on the front stays lit which indicates that it is not connected properly. The thing is, IT IS CONNECTED PROPERLY! One end will only attach to the motherboard one way and I have tried the floppy end both ways although I'm almost positive I had it right to begin with. I'm trying to isolate the problems one at a time, so I was going to take care of this one after I at least managed to get to the BIOS setup. The floppy wouldn't have any effect on the keyboard though, would it?

 

[Head]

Check the pwer cable on the floppy - it could be backwards which would cause the light to stay on too. Make sure that the IDE cable is connected properly to the back of the floppy too - the red stripe tends to go to the left, while the IDE cables on the hard drives go to the right. Try that out and get back to us with the results - you can also PM me and we can try to work it out that way.

 

[Mancubus]

Alright, here's the scoop. I messed around some more w/ the floppy and couldn't get it to boot
w/ a boot disk. I figured that maybe there was something wrong with it, so I wired in the one from
my other computer but still no luck. It hangs at the screen that says the BIOS version, processor speed and memory type. What does this mean? Is the motherboard bad or is something screwed up w/ the
cpu? I got a duron 900, 256mb pc2100 crucial, and an epox 8kha+ mobo.

 

[Head]

Are the CMOS jumpers set to normal (PINS 2 and 3) or to clear? Are you getting any beep codes or anything? Make sure all of your jumpers are set right - the CMOS the voltage (if applicable) the CPU multiplier (if applicable) etc.


We'll figure this out yet!

 

[MustangSVT]

i dont know why u guys are trying to boot with floppy if it wont even go past that press DEL on keyboard error message.

test this keyboard on a different computer, if it doesnt work, then its a bad keyboard, if it works, reset the bios with jumper setting (if no such option go to next step).

if it doesnt work, rma for bad ps/2 port on motherboard.

gl.

 

[Head]

<< i dont know why u guys are trying to boot with floppy if it wont even go past that press DEL on keyboard error message. >>



The point I was trying to figure out was whether the computer was hanging because it had nothing to do after POST - I wasn't sure what the reaction would be considering he had no formatted hard drive and nothing working on A:.

In addition, two keyboards were already tried (both usb and Ps2) and they have worked on another machine. I was trying to help him narrow down the possibilites of problems. I think you are right about the BIOS jumpers - as I just finished saying that!

If the CMOS doesn't work, definitely RMA the board since everything else has been tried (at least as far as I can tell)!

 

[MustangSVT]

oops.. i c i didnt read the posts well..

my apologies. damn... too bad we couldnt fix this....

 

[Mancubus]

:disgust: Well, I can safely say it's not a keyboard problem. I tried a third keyboard for good measure
but it didn't work. So the question is, where is the problem. It would seem to be the motherboard but I want to be sure before I end up RMA 'ing the wrong component. Any chance the cpu could be the prob?

 

[Mancubus]

:Q Now this is WIERD! I was giving up hope on this thing and then my brother calls me downstairs and sure enough, I'm looking at a blue setup screen at last. The keyboard seems to work now (the ps2 one) and I set up all the options including boot from the floppy drive first so I can format the HD and all that good stuff. So I save, exit, and... the same thing! It hangs back at the very first screen. I found that if I tap the power button (as opposed to pressing and holding it which turns the system off), it goes to the setup screen, but no matter what I seem to do, when I reboot, it's the same old, same old. Now I'm really stumped.