Keyboard failure

I am having a similar problem.

Last night I connected a Vivitar camera.  I forgot to install the drivers for the camera first.  When I connected the camera, the computer locked up.  I powered off the computer and when I turned it on this morning, it booted to the User login screen for XP.  However, both the keyboard and mouse do not work.  When I restarted the computer, I noticed that I was getting a "keyboard error" and that the computer did not seem to recognize any input from the keyboard.  I tried four different keyboards without any luck.

Bottom line, it looks like all the USB ports on the computer have become diabled.  Effectively, I cannot do anything with my computer because there is no PS/2 port for me to try an older keyboard.  The keyboard is getting power (it lights up) but no functionality.  Oddly, my mouse does not seem to be getting any power.

The computer (XPS 400) is booting up fine and there are no error lights on.  Just seems that the BIOS got scrambled.

I am having the same problem with my xps 400, keyboard failure. It seems like a lot of people are having the same problem and I am wondering if Dell is doing anything about this product. i don't want to pay for tech support to tell me it is an expensive mother board problem. Thanks

Try this:

Turn off PC by holding down power button.   After it turns off - unplug from wall. 

While unplugged from wall - hold down the power on/off button for 60 seconds (this drains the power from the system).

Plug PC back in and reboot - hopefully, that fixes the issue.

From what I have seen, this is a common problem and the keyboards are fine - Dell does not currently have a solution.

Good luck!

jairoram,

Thank you this worked for me.  I was trying to sync a pda phone through usb and unplugged it during sync.  The mouse and keyboard froze and I had to reboot.  All further reboots came up with keyboard failure.  I tried multiple keyboards.

I tried your advice and it was up and running on the next reboot.

Thanks and good luck to all.

Troy

My xps 400 locked me out with the keyboard failure when I connected my electronic piano to one of my USB ports. I tried all of the fixes which have been suggested in this forum and none worked. So I purchased the Hi-Speed 5 port USB 2.0 PCI card made by IOGEAR from Amazon for $22. I plugged it into one of my spare PCI slots, connected my mouse and keyboard and voila they worked! I still get the keyboard failure message in the boot process and I cannot interact with the boot process using my keyboard. I would like to find a way to tell the boot processor to use my keyboard which is now connected to the IOGEAR board. Any suggestions?

To the person posting above me, please explain how you are suppose to get into the BIOS if the keyboard does not work and the PC only has USB ports, so PS/2 is not an option...

Anyways, I have the same issue on a dimension 9150, I have heard that this works:

-Unplug the computer and disconnect all devices.

-Press and hold power button for 10 seconds to drain the capacitor to prevent electrical shock.

-Open computer case and locate the 3 pin jumper block (located next to the 4 SATA harddrive connection points on the motherboard). The jumper is blue and will be connected to two of the three pins on the motherboard.

-Remove the jumper block for a second (apparently this clears the memory?) then reconnect it back to it's original postion.

-Close it up and that should do it! The Dell tech guy said the memory was corrupted or looped and this procedure cleared it out.

But I have done this and now I have the following error on top of the Keyboard failure:

"Floppy diskette seek failure

 Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility."

Whomever thought to build these dells withour PS/2 ports needs to be smacked in the face.

This will not work for me, I am also getting a floppy error because my BIOS is looking for a floppy drive. I MUST press F1 to resume booting.

This is obvously a problem since USB is not working and the 9150 has NO PS/2 ports.

To the person posting above me, please explain how you are suppose to get into the BIOS if the keyboard does not work and the PC only has USB ports, so PS/2 is not an option... Anyways, I have the same issue on a dimension 9150, I have heard that this works: -Unplug the computer and disconnect all devices. -Press and hold power button for 10 seconds to drain the capacitor to prevent electrical shock. -Open computer case and locate the 3 pin jumper block (located next to the 4 SATA harddrive connection points on the motherboard). The jumper is blue and will be connected to two of the three pins on the motherboard. -Remove the jumper block for a second (apparently this clears the memory?) then reconnect it back to it's original postion. -Close it up and that should do it! The Dell tech guy said the memory was corrupted or looped and this procedure cleared it out.   But I have done this and now I have the following error on top of the Keyboard failure: "Floppy diskette seek failure  Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility." Whomever thought to build these dells withour PS/2 ports needs to be smacked in the face.

The bios can be accessed before the keyboard failure. The last Dell XPS 400 I repaired showed the keyboard failure after the bios post

Perhaps you aren't understanding what is happening.

How can I access the BIOS if I cannot press the delete key while booting?!?

- No USB device works.

- The Dell Dimension 9150 has no PS/2 ports.

How do I get into the BIOS without a keyboard?

BTW, your reply is showing as quoted text from me. You may want to fix that to avoid confusion.

That's a new one for me... The XPS 400 I fixed allowed me to enter setup at startup, but if I let it go past the bios post I would get the keyboard error.

What about a PCI USB card?

all right guys, lets take it easy here!

If you cleared BIOS by removing the jumper (or by removing the battery from the motherboard), you reset BIOS to factory defaults. The default setting for the floppy drive controller is ON, even if you don't have a floppy drive installed. So reboot and press F2 to enter BIOS setup. Find the listing for the floppy driver controller and change it from ON to OFF. Save the change and exit setup. You shouldn't see the floppy drive error message again.

As for the rest of you. Unplug the PC from the wall and press/hold the power button for ~15 sec. Open the case and remove the battery from the motherboard. Press/hold the power button agan for ~30 sec. LEAVE THE PC UNPLUGGED FOR SEVERAL HOURS OR OVERNIGHT. Now replace the battery (right side up!) and try to boot with only USB mouse and keyboard plus monitor connected.

If that doesn't fix it, you will have to boot from the XP CD and attempt a Repair/Reinstall which will require you to reinstall SP3 plus all the other XP updates and fixes. And if that doesn't do it, you probably have to reformat and reinstall which means you will lose your data.  If the hard drive isn't backed up on external media (eg, CDs), you may have to connect this drive to another PC using an external drive case or mount it inside another PC to rescue your files before you reformat/reinstall.

BTW: Using stars (*) to replace potentially bad words is a violation of the forum's Terms of Service. A moderator can delete this entire thread and/or ban the user who violates the TOS. So if you're the one who did it, please go back and edit your post to comply with TOS.

Ron

I just had the same problem: 1. Keyboard failure message.  2. Neither keyboard nor mouse works.  It happened after I had done a defrag on the hard drive.  I don't know if that did it, but it's suspicious.  The computer works--I can link to the hard drive from my other computer and update files on it: just the access via keyboard and mouse is gone.  Based on what others have said, I trust that it's not the keyboard or mouse that has failed.

I have done some of what has been suggested--the simple option: turn it off, unplug it, press the "ON" button for 30 seconds, re-plug, and reboot.  Still the problem.  I tried using some other USB ports (on the front).  No luck. Have not tried taking the computer apart and finding the jumper and jumper block.  Yet.

What has worked is plugging the keyboard and mouse into my USB extender (which itself is plugged into a USB port).  That works.  The mouse and keyboard work.

My question: now that I have it working, is there anything I can do--short of removing the cover and finding the jumper and jumper block)--that might correct the situation?  For example, going back to a previous restore point?  Doing something to reinstall some kind of mouse and keyboard drivers?

I just realized that the problem is not really a "keyboard failure" or a "mouse failure."  Those are just the symptoms: it's really a USB port failure, because nothing  using those ports works--keyboard, mouse, or picture transmissions from a camera.  So the "real" questions is: how to re-set the USB ports, so that the mouse and keyboard work?  Once they are working, then this "keyboard error" (our common symptom) goes away.

Okay, here's my thoughts...

I had a Dell XPS400 come into the shop with the "keyboard failure press F1 to continue" error. I entered the BIOS and turned off the USB boot and it seemed to work fine (I had the impression the computer was trying to boot from the keyboard or mouse). I was able to enter into any of the accounts after XP loaded. The customer picked up the computer and took it home only to be able to boot to the logon screen but the keyboard and mouse still failed to respond (no keyboard failure press F1 after the boot, just no response from HID input). I tried to install a PCI USB card with no success, and I also tried the Dell fix with the jumper pins to no avail. That only added the floppy drive error.

I honestly think this is a mobo failure. All headaches may be resolved by installing a new motherboard. But even the least expensive BTX mobo's range in price from $21 to $500+ so it's your call. Given the amount of Dell computers I repair I would say buy a new computer and NOT A DELL.

I recently had a Dell employee come in and say that people should buy Dell's from Dell, which tells me that Dell sends substandard machines to brick and mortar stores like Best Buy, Staples, and Comp USA. I hope that is not the case, but I'd be remiss to feel otherwise.

Either way... Dell, wake up! build better machines, give us back the PS/2 connection, even if most keyboard/mouse combo's are USB, when they fail (and you know they do) the PS/2 is almost always reliable.

At this point I am going to tell the customer his options... Buy a new motherboard, or buy a new computer and pull the data off the XPS400. This adds to the long list of Dell's I have to work on. Not always with this problem, but I work on more Dell's, and Gateway's than hp, or Sony, or Toshiba.

Best of luck folks! From now on Dell gets no help from me selling their machines.