Keyboard Failure at startup for XPS 400

this is not an uncommon reported problem with the 400. Unfortunately the only remedy is to replace the motherboard. You have done all the troubleshooting steps that are normally recommended. The only other thing I might suggest would be to use a USB hub to connect the keyboard to the hub to the computer but again this is a long shot at best

Apparently,  your friends XPS 400 had this problem come up at the same time as my friends XPS 400.  You just beat me to the forum by a couple of days.

I've checked the Dell site and a motherboard is not considered a customer self-replaceable part.  Does this mean you have to get a Dell tech to swap it out?  How much does this motherboard cost?

I'd hate to tell my friend that buying a new PC may be the best option.

We shouldn't have to do this out of our own pocket!  Dell has a social responsibility to fix this.  Too many people have paid good money for such a poorly made product that most trusted in the name of DELL!  I will not buy another Dell computer ever again and I have given them lot's of business.  What a crying shame!  Shame on you DELL!!!!

abapexpert,

Have you tried the following before considering a new motherboard?

Shutdown the PC
Unplug the power cable from the back of the PC
Press and hold the power button on the front panel for 30 secs
Plug the power cable back into the PC
Power on the PC and check USB devices

Also, you mentioned not being able to boot from your CD. You need to press F12 at boot time to get your list of devices to boot from. You'll see the CD drive in the list. Select it to boot from your CD.

F12 won't work if your keyboard is not being recognized.  I have no mouse/keyboard..."keyboard failure" upon boot up.

I tried this process many times w/o success.  I have the power unplugged, CMOS battery out and giving it 24 hours before I try again.  This happened to me once before and I took the machine down to Bestbuy/Circuit City to get some estimates.  Bestbuy said I needed new hard drives and Circuit City said the system is fine.  I took it home, plugged it in and all was good.  Hopefully, this will be the same again today when I plug it back in.

Well, I got home this evening and put the CMOS battery back in, plugged the machine back in and fired it up.  I still have the same problem again...nothing has changed.  The system sat overnight w/o any power and CMOS battery out and jumpers pulled and put back.  I'm afraid it looks like the M/B is fried!  I have had nothing but problems w/DELL's computers.  The first Dell I had the M/B needed to be changed.  Then the hard drive and DVD ROM went bad on it as well.  Good thing the warranty was still active.  The MPS 140 laptop just had some files that were corrupted and had to reload Windows.  My XPS 400 DVD burner went out and now the USB and M/B are no good.  Unfortunately, I have no more warranty on this machine.  System isn't old enough to be replaced right now and these are hard times to justify forking out more money to buy another system.  These situations will most definately have a huge impact on my decision to buy another DELL computer system.  I was really surprised to find that virtually every part inside the XPS 400 was made in China!!!!  No wonder why the darn thing isn't lasting!  It's really a shame that DELL doesn't take responsibility to fix these lemons since there are countless customers with the same exact problem.  It is faulty and they have a morale obligation to make it right w/their customers!  :emotion-12:

IDK if this might be the problem or not, but if your keyboard is a USB that may be the problem, even though my computer is not the same model it is not recognized on startup, although i dont get a keyboard failure error, it just doesnt do anything.

about a month ago we had to turn off our system.  When we turned it back on we got a flashing yellow light up front.  We had to unplugged everything from the USB and turn it on again.  It seems with too much in the USB our 400 won't power up right.  Well, now our monitor is in power save mode and our keyboard is not working.  Does anyone have any ideas of what I need to do next - I have tried everything I can think of. 

thanks

I don't have the solution but have the same problem with my XPS 400.  All USB ports have gone dead.  My warranty just ran out a couple of months ago.  All the time, my Dell systems have nothing but the problems.  Originally, Dimension 8400 had so many problems, they gave me XPS 400 as a replacement.  This one had many problems and a number of things had to be replaced during warranty.  And now, 2 months after warranty expires, usb ports have gone dead.  Now, I am looking at HP as a replacement.  Any thoughts on HP's performance and customer service ?  Or it is just as bad as Dell and would not make any difference ? 

I too am having the same issue. I bought a USB PCI 4 port card & installed it. I still get the "keyboard failure" msg at startup but if I let it sit there for several seconds it falls thru & boots up. I then can log in, but I can't interrupt & get to bios. And before I buy a new mother board I want to get into the bios & verify that somehow USB didn't get disabled or something. Of course I guess if that were the case I wouldn't have any USB functionality at all, huh? Or actually I was wondering if there was a way to disable on-board USB in hopes that my system would then see the PCI USB at startup & allow keyboard/mouse input!!

This thread has been locked due to it's age, if you have a similar issue, please use the 'New post' feature at the top of this page and start a new thread.

Bev.