Where is my keyboard

I'm sure you've tried another known good keyboard. If after trying this the system still won't recognize the keyboard, you should probably examine the keyboard connector on the motherboard for a broken connection or cracked/cold solder joint. I've assembled several systems in the past like the one you've assembled that exhibited faulty keyboard connections and have traced the problem to the conector.

If you feel confident, go ahead and resolder the 5 connections and the 'strap' that secures the DIN connector to the motherboard. Make sure to use a 10 to 25 watt, grounded iron and rosen-core solder.

If that doesn't fix the problem, try replacing the keyboard BIOS if it is socketed.

Doug F.

Since the mouse works, click start,settings, control panel; and system. Click on device mgr., select keyboard, a subtitle should say 101/104 key or MS Natural Kbd. Double click to bring up the kbd info panel. The general page tells the status. If status bad (it doesn't say 'device is working properly', look at the 'resources' page it should indicate i/o range 0060 and i/o range 0064 and irq 01. You may delete the keyboard and have windows relook for it next boot. If it doesn't find it this timeone of the old devices you've installed may be grabbing the irq or you may have a bad or xt keyboard, or the m.b. chipset is bad OR you could have the kbd plugged into the wrong socket. Good luck dhpee

Some systems care if the PS/2 mouse and PS/2 keyboard plugins are reversed, others don't. Having made this mistake, I can tell you that when you have the connections reversed eithe the keyboard or the mouse won't work. Try reversing the connections between the mouse and the keyboard!

Because this is an older machine, I don't think that I'd trust the stickers on the computer, perhaps the mom-board was replaced with a non-conforming replacement.

Since you've used components from a few machines I'll suggest to remove all components (leave memory and processor), reset BIOS and also check if
motherboard is not in contact with computer casing.
Good Luck!

I have run into this before and generally speaking its the PS/2 connector on the mother board that has gone bad. Check out the connection very carefully , sometimes you can repair it yourself by re- soldering it or replaceing it with a known good one. Hope this helps

Are you sure that the keyboard is working properly with any system??

I recently upgraded some older PCs to make them Y2K compliant and ran into the same problem where the older keyboards that originally came with the system would not work with the newer motherboard (did not get beeps on bootup but did not work). I purchased a newer model of keyboard and all was fine.

If you are like me, you save old computer parts and do what we have done and build an extra computer. In saving all my junk parts I have parts left over from my old XT days, you might check the keyboard and see if it is an old XT keyboard from an old 86 or 286 system, if so you will need to see if it has a little switch on the bottom or somewhere else that lets you switch between AT and XT, set it to XT, if not would suggest trying a keyboard from an AT system and see if it works if it does, then go out and get a cheapy keyboard someplace.

Hope this helped,

Doug

Some of you may have run across the same problem I am about to describe while working with older equipment. Some keyboards only work with certain computers. Such as some of the old IBM keyboards, wich are easily recognized by the 4th led(wich is labled POWER & sits right along with the CAPS, NUM & Scroll leds).This keyboard only works with the old IBM towers having the MCA bus(the ones I've tried anyways).I have come across many older keyboards that behave in this way though not so much with the AT style keyboards(I have found a few though).I would recomend firs trying another AT keyboard, if its a AT computer that is. You can pick up pretty good keyboards at low prices any number of places.

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