Keyboard failure

I'll be doing the same thing tonight.  So we'll see if I have any better luck.  I'll let everybody know.

My concern is that the repair locations will use the same mobo as the factory original and I can't get confirmation which mobo these places will use. Will they use the same board Dell used? Will they replace the board with a good one, will they just try to repair the board? I still say avoid Dell, and I tell my customers the same... which is a shame because not too long ago Dell had some really nice machines.

The best I can say is research your computer very well before you buy it, or learn to build your own. Your best bet is to build your own... you get the patrs you want, and no one is really to blame but you (or the individual manufacturer). Plus I tell everyone that you no longer pay for quality, you pay for technology. This is a disposable world.

Turn on the PC, unplug the keyboard from the USB port, now look at the keyboard LEDs (Caps, Num & Scrool) and plug the keyboard into port while observing the LEDs. if the LEDs dont blink while plug in the keyboard, the problem is with the power source of USB ports on the motherboard.

I have exactly the same problem as above (on my Dell 9150 dimension). The pc turns on with "keyboard failure" and "floppy diskette seek failure etc". I have checked the keyboard and mouse on my laptop, changed the system battery for a new one, tried the 3 pin jumper trick as above and now have absolutely no ideas as to what needs to be done. Is there an official Dell response to this problem? Just try a new motherboard is not a solution as far as i am concerned.

GSermon

You have tried all of the known suggestions to fix your issue if clearing the Flea power does not work and using the CMOS reset does not work then the only recourse is a new motherboard. This is not an uncommon problem with the 9150/400 systems.

My only other suggestions is to examine the usb jacks themselves and look for anythat might have bent or damged pins.

Yes unfortunaly this is more common than not. You model is the same as a XPS 400 so you can search for either a 9150 system or XPS400 system board.

What are the costs of the motherboard? which do i need? I presume that it would be better just to buy a new pc?

I assume that the CMOS reset is the removal of the blue jumper?

THe USB jacks are fine ..

I find it amaizing that a PC of (around) 5jrs old can fail in this way

I had the same problem about 6 weeks ago. It took me 2 days to troubleshoot & solve -- but eventually got everything back to normal. I tried posting to this board with my solution, but I used a word Dell didn't like and they dropped my post.

I tried all the stuff posted here & nothing worked. I stopped & started the computer so much that I couldn't even get the win login screen to come back up. Eventually I installed a usb port card in one of the expansion slots -- one that adds 4 additional usb ports. Although the computer couldn't boot to windows to find & install this hardware, adding this card "woke up" the top 2 usb ports on the back of my computer. I was able to use the kb & mouse.

I went into BIOS first. There was nothing in there to fix the problem. Next I repaired windows. It found errors & fixed. When I rebooted into win, the usb port drivers needed to be reinstallled. Thus, I thought it was a driver problem -- a harddrive error caused the USB drivers to stop working. I had to reinstall a bunch of win updates and it literally took me hrs to get back up-&-running. I lost 2 days of productivity.

A week later the exact same problem. This time I did 2 things immediately: 1) replaced the CMOS battery. Thought maybe a weak battery was causing it (I had only removed and reset battery before). No help. 2) Removed everything plugged into a usb port & installed the usb expansion card to wake up the ports on the back. I did not repair windows this time, but simply logged into win. This time win did not repair the usb drivers. Once I was in win, I plugged devices back into usb ports. No problems & I was back up in 30 mins.

I've since left the expansion port card in & have not had a problem. It might be a weak CMOS battery. It might be a MB problem. Don't trash it until you've at least tried the expansion card solution.

Shame .. i really do not want to think of getting a new PC or motherboard.

As a last "guess", i had the issue some time ago as well and it happened direcly after we plugged an "ipod shuffle" via usb into the PC. That time the innactive mouse/keyboard seemed to go away after playing around with the USB cables and swearing at the computer for a while.  We also joined the same "ipod" to the PC just before the innactive keyboard/mouse happened again .. and this time the innactive USBs has not gone away.

Could the shuffle be the cause of the issue? Does this ring any bells with anyone as to a possible cause and more important remedy for the problem? Or is this really coincidence?

I have already a usb port expansion card in the computer and connecting the keyboard and mouse to this does not work. Maybe i need to try a different usb card?

Today i have tried cleaning the contacts everywhere on the MB including swapping the RAM banks as i have noticed two beeps now when i switch on (2 Beeps = Memory Parity Error in first 64KB block) however i do not know if i have always had these beeps since the keyboard/usb problems. Next week i will try and find someone at work that can possibly lend me other RAMs that i can try.

Is there a relationship with the USB problem and the ipod shuffle? Why did all problems start when i plugged the shuffel into the computer? Can the shuffle cause these problems? 

Remove and carefullyreseat all RAM modules in their slots.  If you still get the error, remove the module from slot 1 and set it aside. Now remove the modules from slots 3 and 4.  (See this 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

for slot numbering.)  Install a module from either slot 3 or 4 in slot 1. If the error goes away, then the module that was originally in slot 1 failed.  If none of the modules work in slot 1 then, then motherboard has failed. [:'(]

It's possible the ipod is simply drawing too much power from the USB controller and overloading the system. There's a limit of 500 mA on USB so if all the USB devices, including the ipod, are connected at the same time and exceed the limits...  The solution in that case, and assuming you can get the keyboard and mouse to work again, would be to connect an externally powered USB hub to a rear port on the tower and plug the ipod in through there.

If you boot from your XP CD, are the keyboard and mouse recognized? In that case, the solution to the problem may be a hard drive reformat and clean install of XP. But remember, all files and software on the hard drive will be lost, so I hope you're backed up.  If necessary, you could install this hard drive as secondary drive in another system to retrieve the files before reformatting. Be sure you have all the hardware drivers (including chipset) required for your system burned on a CD before you begin, and you have to reinstall the drivers in the correct order.

Ron

I have a couple of questions for you.  In my case all but one of the USB ports stopped working and I added an extender to the one so that my mouse and keyboard are now working.  But I'd like to get the others working again.

So here are my questions.  (1) Did you just uninstall the drivers and then reinstall them?  (2) Which Windows updates did you have to reinstall?  Were the Windows errors obvious?

I'm concerned about doing something that will cause the one remaining USB port to stop working.

Thanks

We are definately not alone with this issue .. the more i looked into it the more people i have found with the same issue. A few months ago i also had "some" of the usbs not working and luckily they came back again after some swearing and playing with the cables.  I did not re-install drivers or do any updates.

I think that your USBs are likely to die soon especially if you are using a lot of them (wireless devices, bluetooth devices, external disks, printers, ipods ..). My findings have shown that the Dell 9150 has a problem with the overloading of the USBs. My first advice is to ensure that you have a backup of your disk(s). My second advice is to reduce the possible load on the USBs (add an interal USB card and shift yout devices, or to remove some devices that you do not need).

It seems that PCs from today generate so much heat and are very sensitive to overloads that they have a lifespan of 3-5 years .. I know that this sounds rediculous! The first thing to die is the motherboard and much later the disks, screen, psu etc

If you have USB problems with the Dimension 9150 / 400 as follows:

1. When booting up "Keyboard Failure" is shown on the screen (lamp in mouse is on + other usb peripherals show power), the computer continues to boot up to a login screen (windows). However there is no life in the mouse and keyboard (but they are both fine)

2. OR "Floppy diskette seek failure, press F1 to continue, F2 to run setup" as well as the "keyboard failure" and the machine does not get further than this.

Then you can try the following:

1.  Shutting down completely (pressing on/off button longer than 10 seconds), opening the box, removing and replacing one of the blue jumpers (see comments from others inthis forum) and then restarting. This seems to work for some but not for me (and many others).

2. Try replacing the battery (especially if the pc is more than 3 yrs old).

3.Try leaving the battery out over night (seems to work for others .. but not me)

If you still have the same problem then i am afraid that the motherboard is probably fried and there is no other alternative than a new motherboard or a new computer. If you want to get the same motherboard as the original then you will have to pay too much to make it finacially viable. If the peripherals are fine (disks, cds etc) then you could consider the same as i did: I bought a new motherboard (not a Dell one) and also new processor of course + RAM and a new box. I connected up all the old peripherals etc and booted up, reinstalled all drivers (using CD provided) and re-activated XP (as it seems to check the code of the motherboard). The system works exactly as before .. no migrating of data etc!

If the PC is more than 5 years old or you have no peripherals the you would want to keep, or you would not risk putting a new motherboard yourself then a new PC is the better option.

In the Netherlands (where i live) the new Desktop option (base pc) would cost (around) Eur 400 + and the new motherboard/case/processor/ram cost me Eur 174 .. for me i simply went for the cheaper option and i did not want to migrate any data, and i wanted to stay with XP and not go to Vista.

Good luck!

Well, they have replaced my motherboard TWICE and keyboard and mouse twice as well!  I still get the USB device mal-function while I'm working.  Then when I try booting up.....KEYBOARD FAILURE.  I have REFORMATTED 3 TIMES!!!  NOTHING!!!  I have done everything in the thread.....NOTHING!!!  I have had this problem for well over a year now.  I have a Dell XPS 410.  How can they say that they use top of the line hardware with their XPS line and have failures like this?!?!?