Keyboard Failure message with a working keyboard (Dimension 8300)

Question

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Hello,

After looking through the forums for hours I decided to post my dilemma. I have a Dimension 8300 that has been working like a champ for the last five years. Two years ago, I upgraded my C drive to an SATA drive. Ever since then, I have been getting two errors: Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure, and Keyboard Failure. Thing is, my keyboard works fine and my hard drive works fine too. Recently however, I just tried booting off of an IDE drive, after removing my SATA drive and cable completely, and then the keyboard and hard drive don't work. I get the Keyboard Failure message, as well as a Secondary SATA Drive Missing error. Since the keyboard doesn't work, I can't tell the BIOS to boot off the IDE chain. But, the keyboard DOES work.

If the keyboard works great with a SATA drive booting, why does it fail with an IDE drive?

(IDE drive has XP Pro, was my boot drive on another computer and has photos on it that I cannot access if I use it as an external drive).

Thanks for reading!

Joe E

RoHe · Answer

The diskette drive seek error is probably for a floppy drive. Do you have an internal floppy drive in the 8300? If you do, it may have failed, or has a non-system disk in it. If you don't have an internal floppy drive, did you at some point clear NVRAM (eg, reset BIOS to factory defaults)? The Dell BIOS default for floppy drive controller is ENABLED, even if you don't have a floppy drive installed. So you need to get into BIOS and change the setting to disabled.

You're not going to be able to boot off that IDE drive if it came from another PC. It has hardware drivers on it that are probably specific for the other motherboard and hardware and they won't match what's installed in your 8300.

When was the last time you replaced the battery on the motherboard? You may need to clear NVRAM and then disable the floppy drive controller (see above). Is this a USB or PS2 keyboard? I've seen some people clear the BIOS keyboard error by powering off, disconnecting the keyboard and then booting until it halts. Then power off and reconnect the keyboard.

Don't see why you can't access your files from the IDE drive as an internal secondary drive to the SATA boot drive...

Ron

Joeesc · Answer

Thanks for your reply Ron.

There isn't an internal floppy drive, so I don't know why that was set that way. The original HDD was IDE, and I upgraded it to SATA.

The IDE drive that I'm trying to boot off came from another Dell computer that crashed due to motherboard problems. I've tried putting it as an internal secondary drive to the SATA boot drive but the computer never sees it. The files I'm trying to access were saved under the administrator login and can't be seen unless I log in as the admin on that drive.

I'm going to try what you suggested. Thank you!

Joe

Joeesc · Answer

Ron,

The answers and explanations you've given me would've taken DAYS to get from Dell tech support.

Thank you SO much. You deserve the $90 an hour or whatever they charge! I'll try everything when I get back from vacation.

Thanks again!

Joe

RoHe · Answer

Joe,

For a long time the Dell BIOS default for the floppy drive controller was ENABLED even though most PCs weren't shipping with an internal floppy. So every time BIOS is reset to factory defaults you have to disable the floppy controller if you don't have an internal floppy drive. We've argued with Dell about that issue many times on this forum. :emotion-5:

Are you connnecting the IDE drive to the right controller on the motherboard.? It should be connected as Drive 1, not as Drive 0, and the jumper on the hard drive should be set to "Cable Select", not to "Master" or "Slave".

Are you sure the IDE controller settings are correct in BIOS so it recognizes your old drive? The default setting for a secondary (eg, non-boot) IDE drive (Drive 1) in the 8300 is OFF, so you also need to change that setting to ON before BIOS will see the drive.

Not sure why you think you can't see those files on the IDE drive unless you log in as Administrator on the IDE drive. It's true when that IDE drive is the boot drive, only somebody with admin rights can see those files, if that's how permissions were assigned. But if you boot from your SATA drive, XP shouldn't know anything about who has rights to those files on the IDE drive and you should be able to see/open them. And if you're logged in as Admin on the SATA drive, Windows should allow you to take ownership of the files in that account on the IDE drive, even if it won't let you open them without taking ownership.

Ron

RoHe · Answer

Joe, You're on vacation and I'm fixing your PC? That doesn't seem fair! :emotion-2:   I hope you went some place nice!   Ron

Joeesc · Answer

Ron,

I don't know what to say. The keyboard I've been using is a wireless logitech, plugged into the USB and PS2 ports. I couldn't access the BIOS screen using it, so I plugged in a keyboard directly into the PS2 port. No matter how many times I restarted the PC, it just skipped along and started up as if I never hit the F2, F8 or F12 buttons.

How do I get this computer to load into the BIOS if the keyboard isn't recogmized? BTW, after starting up, the keyboard works like a champ.

Any ideas?

Joe

RoHe · Answer

Is that other keyboard a PS/2 keyboard or are you using a USB>PS/2 adaptor (typically a green thingy)?

Are you pressing F2 as soon as you see the blue Dell logo on the screen? Tap F2 (don't hold it) a couple of times as soon as (or before) the logo appears.

Have you tried resetting BIOS? Disconnect the PC from the wall, and press/hold power button for ~15 sec. Open the case and remove the battery from the motherboard. Press/hold the power button again for at least 30 sec. Reinstall the battery, right-side-up!

Ron

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Keyboard Failure message with a working keyboard (Dimension 8300)

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