souzafone

Xp pro, Dell box. Had no keyboard or mouse upon starting my pc, so I had a senior moment and decided to put the setup disc from Dell in to "fix" my problem. Setup runs till it gets to the language prompt, which I can't complete because the keyboard or mouse won't function. Now I can't boot to safe mode because setup wants to run first. What I've tried so far---changing out keyboards and mice to USB and back, same thing. Booting to the Dell drivers disc allows the keyboard and mouse to work, but only as long as the disc is in. The diagnostics on the disc all show the mouse & keyboard to work properly. Any & all help greatly appreciated.

MikeSty

Are the keyboard and mouse USB into a PS/2 (keyboard/mouse round connector) adapter, or are they the other way around? Try a keyboard that doesn't have that adapter, or change your adapter(s).

souzafone

Original mouse was USB to PS/2, tried using USB port, and tried using an older mouse that didn't require the adapter. Keyboard was using USB, switched it for an older one also, no go.

MikeSty

Jeez. That's rough. Unless Cyrnel and his wisdom can pull something out of his ass, you might have to call Dell

cyrnel

"That's rough" is about right. Things be missing.

Help me out here. Your system was working, then stopped seeing the input devices for as yet unknown reasons. You've tried both ps2 and usb keyboards and mice but your XP installation doesn't see any of them, nor does the XP install CD. But the dell driver CD does see them.

Diagnostics seeing them I could understand, as diags often talk directly to the interfaces. That seems to suggest the devices and ports are okay, but something between is wrong (both with ps2 and USB). Very odd. (Certainly with someone else reporting a USB issue just a bit ago.) Does your system have an easy way of clearing its CMOS settings? Battery or jumper?

I'm lost with this part:
Are you saying setup changed your boot blocks, or that you can't eject the CD, or ??? I see you mention later that you used the driver cd, so I'm a bit confused since I can't imagine the install CD doing anything without a kbd and mouse.

Too many twisty paths here. Let us know what you can.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

souzafone

"hey dad, the computer don't work" is what I know. When I boot into safe mode, setup runs from where it left off, leaving me stranded at the language prompt. I suspect a program was installed, causing this problem. Speak to me more of CMOS, I'm ignorant. CD's eject fine. Forgot to mention I can navigate in the sys setup menu to change boot order, but of course I have no backup floppy. Also a second hard drive was added a couple of years ago for media storage. It's the default location for my docs, and also program installs. Thanks.

cyrnel

Oy. This is a tough one to help with remotely. It does sound like the keyboard works some of the time, vs. almost never which is what I inferred from your op. At least it works enough to forkle your installed system, eh?

So, neither keyboard worked with either your original XP or your Dell setup disc, right? And you powered off between switching them and only had one attached at a time?

I don't want to get ahead of myself and some of the details are important. We could restore factory BIOS defaults & such but I'm not confident I understand the problem well enough yet to start throwing kitchen sinks much further.

You said you can navigate the sys setup menu for boot order. Is that the F12 boot menu or something else? Can you enter BIOS setup with F2? Don't worry, you can just reboot without doing anything.

If you want to try the reset - can't really hurt - you'll need to go into the F2 setup menu, then do an Alt-F or F9 or somesuch, depending on the Dell. Save changes, unplug the power, hit the power button to discharge caps, whistle a tune, plug it back in and see what happens.

In this context "CMOS" is sort of a catch-all nick for several types of persistent storage used in computers to remember things like hardware configuration and preferences. When corrupted it can cause anything from an apparently dead system to random crashes. Resetting or restoring to factory defaults means different things on different systems. If the system is alive you can tell it to reset itself, like we're attempting above. Other times you have to resort to pulling the battery, shorting a jumper, applying voltage to bad places at just the right time, etc.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

souzafone

I can navigate thru F2 F8 and F12 upon startup and effect changes. F2 brings up selections for sys time,date,drive config,boot order,memory info,cpu info, integrated devices,power mgmt, sys security, numlock, report keybd errors, autopower, fastboot, os install mode, IDE hard drive acoustics mode, sys event log, & asset tag. I see no way to access or reset bios. I tried hitting Alt-F & and F9 in the F2 menu but got nothing. The keyboard works for system menus but is fubar in windows. I owe you a big beer.

Dragonlich

Apparently, the keyboard works fine. As PS/2 keyboards (generally) don't need drivers, methinks it's Windows that's the problem. You say you tried the dell setup disc; is that like a regular Window install disc or what?

If (and only if!) all else fails, a re-install of windows (complete with format of harddisk) *might* solve the problem.

Nimetic

Just as a diagnostic test... perhaps try another keyboard.

And if possible, double check by booting some other OS. There are knoppix bootable CDs, or more simply, can you download and create a dos disk?

souzafone

The Dell disc is justy the OS--I've used it on other brands before. I can't re-install windows; setup is already running. Already tried other keyboards.

cyrnel

If you don't have any issues with an install (and honestly, recovering from your situation is going to be something of a pain) then just use the f12 menu to boot from the install cd. It'll deal with the previous canceled install.

Ideally you'll get away with an overlay/repair install. That means cd boot, setup, choose the existing installation and install over the top. If you do a new install then you'll have to start fresh with all your software.

This assumes the installer listens to your keypresses after booting from the CD. I'm still not sure how persistent your KB problem has been.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

souzafone

cyrnel---I was able to boot to the install cd from the F12 menu and finish the install process. Thank you. Unfortunately it revealed the root cause. The original hard drive is not being recognized so the install went to the hard drive I had for pics and music. Not really a big deal, but now I need to find out what happened to my original C drive. Thanks again, now I can at least use the computer again.