- Mar 15, 2014
- 347
- 43
- 91
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H MB.
This is a pretty new build - the desktop has been working fine for about a month.
The CoolerMaster 330 case I used I later discovered had a notorious flaw: the on/off power button on the front of the case uses a plastic spring. An idiotic design decision and as you might guess it is well known for breaking. Nothing you can about it either as they don't sell the part.
The solution I came up with to avoid this problem was to use the MB's legacy PS/2 keyboard support to start the PC. The PC boots without having to touch the case's start button.
Simple and it has been working perfectly alongside my primary USB keyboard. That was until earlier today.
I started the PC as normal waiting for the usual POST beep which did not come and then suddenly it started beeping seemingly uncontrollably. Blank screen but fans and HDD all clearly working.
Retried but it repeated. Screen blank and no way to enter the BIOS/UEFI or start in Safe mode. Imagining the worst: MB or RAM failure I went online to find out what the Gigabyte error beep codes were hoping it would be something I could at least identify. But when I counted the beeps I quickly realised it was completely beyond any recorded beep code: 33 beeps then 2 very quick beeps and then another 3 or 4 ordinary beeps. Not at all helpful.
So I started disconnecting all peripherals attached testing, hoping against hope it was a flash drive playing up or something like that.
But what it turned out to be was that cheap PS/2 keyboard. I just unplugged it and the PC booted perfectly again. Big relief.
Bizarre thing is that when I plugged it back in again just expecting to get the same problem the boot went perfectly and has done twice since.
So I have a PS/2 keyboard that even when not being used to boot the PC caused this error but unplugged and then reattached the PC begins booting as normal.
I've done some searches and can find no reports of a PS/2 keyboard being involved in anything like this before.
The legacy MB support for the PS/2 keyboard and using it to start the PC I thought might have had some BIOS issue later addressed. But I've checked the BIOS updates for this MB and there's nothing about that mentioned.
So what's the explanation if it is not a BIOS/MB problem - why would an apparently temporary PS/2 keyboard fault, if that is what it was, so dramatically stop a PC from booting anyway?
This is a pretty new build - the desktop has been working fine for about a month.
The CoolerMaster 330 case I used I later discovered had a notorious flaw: the on/off power button on the front of the case uses a plastic spring. An idiotic design decision and as you might guess it is well known for breaking. Nothing you can about it either as they don't sell the part.
The solution I came up with to avoid this problem was to use the MB's legacy PS/2 keyboard support to start the PC. The PC boots without having to touch the case's start button.
Simple and it has been working perfectly alongside my primary USB keyboard. That was until earlier today.
I started the PC as normal waiting for the usual POST beep which did not come and then suddenly it started beeping seemingly uncontrollably. Blank screen but fans and HDD all clearly working.
Retried but it repeated. Screen blank and no way to enter the BIOS/UEFI or start in Safe mode. Imagining the worst: MB or RAM failure I went online to find out what the Gigabyte error beep codes were hoping it would be something I could at least identify. But when I counted the beeps I quickly realised it was completely beyond any recorded beep code: 33 beeps then 2 very quick beeps and then another 3 or 4 ordinary beeps. Not at all helpful.
So I started disconnecting all peripherals attached testing, hoping against hope it was a flash drive playing up or something like that.
But what it turned out to be was that cheap PS/2 keyboard. I just unplugged it and the PC booted perfectly again. Big relief.
Bizarre thing is that when I plugged it back in again just expecting to get the same problem the boot went perfectly and has done twice since.
So I have a PS/2 keyboard that even when not being used to boot the PC caused this error but unplugged and then reattached the PC begins booting as normal.
I've done some searches and can find no reports of a PS/2 keyboard being involved in anything like this before.
The legacy MB support for the PS/2 keyboard and using it to start the PC I thought might have had some BIOS issue later addressed. But I've checked the BIOS updates for this MB and there's nothing about that mentioned.
So what's the explanation if it is not a BIOS/MB problem - why would an apparently temporary PS/2 keyboard fault, if that is what it was, so dramatically stop a PC from booting anyway?
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