Why aren't keyboards recognized by my new system?

[MidiGuy]

I've just assembled a new system using the Asus A7V8X and an AthlonXP 2000+. The system started the very first time, and went into the BIOS configuration automatically. However, we didn't have a keyboard plugged in. We plugged one in, but we still couldn't do anything. We turned it off, but no matter what we do, we can't get either keyboard that we've tried to work, so we can't do anything with the system.

Has anyone else had this problem, or does anyone know what might be wrong?

Thanks!

-Midi

 

[mechBgon]

Errr, I don't think you're supposed to hot-plug PS/2 devices if you can possibly avoid it. I shut the system down before swapping PS/2 mice or keyboards. Not sure if this is worse for the keyboard/mouse or the motherboard, but it's one of those things where I don't want to find out the hard way.

Also, are you sure you have the keyboard plugged into the keyboard connector and not the mouse connector, and have you tried a USB keyboard yet?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Errr, I don't think you're supposed to hot-plug PS/2 devices if you can possibly avoid it. I shut the system down before swapping PS/2 mice or keyboards. Not sure if this is worse for the keyboard/mouse or the motherboard, but it's one of those things where I don't want to find out the hard way.

Also, are you sure you have the keyboard plugged into the keyboard connector and not the mouse connector, and have you tried a USB keyboard yet?

What he said. The PS2 ports are not hot swappable. But try a USB keyboard, I use USB keyboard and mouse. Just make sure to go into the Bios and set USB-Keyboard to on

 

[MidiGuy]

Thanks for the input! I didn't know that about PS/2 ports. I am 95% sure that we had it in the correct port, especially since we tried both just to make sure (although I don't know if we started up with it in the other one, but I'm assuming the purple one is the keyboard. I'll double check). We're going to try a USB keyboard, but of course we can't go into the BIOS to enable it if the keyboard doesn't work, so I hope it works in the BIOS regardless.

Thanks!

-Midi

By the way, is it bad to turn the computer off by flipping the switch on the PSU?

 

[mechBgon]

Flipping the PSU switch is fine. And the keyboard port is the "lower" one, the one closest to the surface of the motherboard. Good luck!

 

[MidiGuy]

We tried the USB keyboard, and it worked, which was both good and bad. I guess that means that the PS/2 port for the keyboard is bad, unless there's another cause. The mouse port works just fine. Other than this one problem, everything else seems just fine, so for this time, we'll probably just leave it.

Thanks again!

-Midi

 

[Peter]

Well hot plugging a PS/2 keyboard into a running system is a pretty secure way to zap the port ...

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: Peter
Well hot plugging a PS/2 keyboard into a running system is a pretty secure way to zap the port ...

Yeah..Thank heaven for USB, or this could have been real ugly.:Q Hardly any reason to even use PS/2 ports anymore with how many usb ports we get these days.