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Setup kills the keyboard

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14 replies

by bob

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A freshly built machine.
Everything is brand new, except the Processor and heatsink, the hard drive and the CDRW.
The drive has Win2KPro on it. When the machine tried to boot to this OS, it BSODed, saying something about recently installed hardware causing problems.
No problem, I am to load a brand new retail copy of XP Pro on it anyway.
I go into the BIOS and change the boot order to CDRom first. Everything is fine until after it loads drivers and such, as Win2k and XP do first, and as the screen appears asking me to hit enter to setup XP, the keyboard quits. It worked only moments ago when I hit the space bar to select run from CD.
Checked connections, changed keyboards, I even tried turning off the video shadow in the BIOS.
Still does the same thing every time.
Anybody with any ideas?

14 replies

by hal 9000

OK as you can get into the BIOS and change things the Keyboard must be working so I would start looking at something else namely a software conflict between the Old Y2K OS and the XP Os that you are trying to install. From memory when the unit starts off from the CD it checks System requirements or resources and it could be at this stage where after reading the already formatted and Loaded HDD that a problem is occurring.

What I always do when reusing a HDD for any reason is to wipe it with a Utility that writes 0's to every sector so it appears to any new install to be completely blank. Doing this I've never had a single problem when install an OS. You should be able to download one of these utilities from most HDD makers Web Sites last time I looked Maxtor had one available but I'll warn you now it isn't a quick thing to run and does take some time.

Col

by bob

I'd like to thank all involved for your attempts to assist me with this problem.
I would like to assure you that I took every post into consideration and followed up on every one.
Unfortunately, nothing cured this problem. My final action was to send the board back as an exchange. If it turns out that the problem is in fact not caused by the board, I will know in 7 to 10 days.
Thanks again, ALL.

by bob

Poster rated this answer.
I'd like to thank all involved for your attempts to assist me with this problem.
I would like to assure you that I took every post into consideration and followed up on every one.
Unfortunately, nothing cured this problem. My final action was to send the board back as an exchange. If it turns out that the problem is in fact not caused by the board, I will know in 7 to 10 days.
Thanks again, ALL.

by bob

Poster rated this answer.
I'd like to thank all involved for your attempts to assist me with this problem.
I would like to assure you that I took every post into consideration and followed up on every one.
Unfortunately, nothing cured this problem. My final action was to send the board back as an exchange. If it turns out that the problem is in fact not caused by the board, I will know in 7 to 10 days.
Thanks again, ALL.

by willcomp

I agree with Colin (Hal9000) that first thing to do is wipe hard drive clean. Even removing partitions with XP setup may not be sufficient. Safest approach is a reset ("low level format") writing all 0's or 1's to hard disk.

Remnants of a previous OS or boot record can create havoc.

Dalton

by bob

I'd like to thank all involved for your attempts to assist me with this problem.
I would like to assure you that I took every post into consideration and followed up on every one.
Unfortunately, nothing cured this problem. My final action was to send the board back as an exchange. If it turns out that the problem is in fact not caused by the board, I will know in 7 to 10 days.
Thanks again, ALL.

by joetechsupport

Clearly as soon as the OS smells that KB it says I'm outta here.

In no particular order, whatever is more relevant and easy:

Swap the keyboard. DOS/BIOS compatibility does not grant Windows compatibility. Connectivity, yes.

Disable the PS/2 port if the keyboard is and and try USB.

I was going to suggest checking USB version incompatibility, but a new PC should have 2 which means you are OK.

If you are 802.x check the compatibility

by bob

I'd like to thank all involved for your attempts to assist me with this problem.
I would like to assure you that I took every post into consideration and followed up on every one.
Unfortunately, nothing cured this problem. My final action was to send the board back as an exchange. If it turns out that the problem is in fact not caused by the board, I will know in 7 to 10 days.
Thanks again, ALL.

by bob

I have tried different keyboards and tested the keyboards on other machines.
Hal, I got an app to write all 0's to the drive and tried again. No difference to report. I even tried a different drive. Same thing.
Sarge, I tried every HAL in the list to no avail.
ghimpe, it is a PS2 keyboard.
joetechsupport, I will try your idea next. I don't have a USB keyboard on hand, but will acquire one on Tuesday. I will combine it with a USB mouse, just for GP.
Thanks Guys. Please don't give up on this. Any idea at this point is a valid one.

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