Heres one for ya. As a Tech I went thru many steps to solve this.....

UNPLUG your card reader from the board, then  go into bios next boot and set the system to not boot from the USB and then turn off the floppy then move your sata/ cd up in boot order...

PResto solved, least partially. Youll have keyboar and mouse functionability after going into the hardware manager and resetting the keyboard in drivers.

There ya go dell. Have a Free One on me )

Sens the Bard.....

I am workiing on a Dell Dimension 5150 Media Center Edition of XP with similar (but not the same problems). Essentially, the computer was badly infested with spyware when I got it, even though there were two mainstay AV programs and one frequently advertised lesser program installed. Cleaned it successfully with Malwarebytes, and was going to remove the AV programs for falling down on the job. On a reboot, didn't notice until too late that Windows was installing SP3 which had been downloaded automatically. On reboot, Windows got to the logo screen (with the pretty animation on the bottom), but would go no further.  Tried Safe Mode, but boot stopped at a strange screen with two characters top left. I then booted the computer using UBCD4win and everything looked fine. I rolled the registry back to just before the update as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545 but got a Stop error 7B. Next, I used the Repair Console to remove SP3. This time, it looked good! I actually got to the Welcome screen in Windows. Only trouble was, I could not click on a name to log in - keyboard and mouse both dead! Installed a 4 port USB PCI card, but no success. So, thought I would do a 'repair install' with a Windows Media Center DVD I had on hand. That worked okay until I got to the point where I needed to click on a button to confirm my language and country. No mouse or keyboard there, either!. I have booted the computer successfully using Acronis True Image (decided to make an early stage 'safe'). Have also booted with the UBCD4win many times - mouse and keyboard work. Have also booted with Knoppix successfully. On my first run with Acronis, I got a 'sector read error' so ran Spinrite from a USB floppy and repaired the drive. I have run CHKDSK from the UBCD4win cd, and while that made minor changes, it did not make any difference to the keyboard and mouse. I have just removed the battery according to Ron's frequent posts. It is now about 10pm, and I will put the battery back in in the morning to see what happens. I may buy a powered USB hub in the morning, although I would love to find a PCI card with PS2 ports on it! Will keep you posted.

Keithg2 it's Keith J. Dude you are the best! I was 2 seconds from call the pc trash and buying a new one when I finally tried you solution. It worked! Thanks

Hi Keith, two years after you post, a line of thanks.

A pal of mine had this odd problem today.  I went over to try solve it and it had me foxed as device manager in WIndows was showing no probs.

I followed your directions and restored the PC to its full working condition.

Thanks

also a Keith.

I have a similar problem. I have an XPS720. Was playing COD5 when it froze and I got a blue screen listing a bunch of video memory errors. I re-booted and then got an "Keyboard Failure" message. Also a SATA 0 and 1 error.

I tried all the ideas I've read in this post and nothing has worked. Today I replaced the battery and now it goes as far as about 10% of the BIOS load and stops.

Can't even get to the point of any failures.

Time for a motherboard?

Who should I take it to? I have a Best Buy "Geek Squad" near by. Should I go there? I do not have the guts to swap MB's myself. Darn machine is only 3 years old. I have 3 other Dells in this house, and have bought around 10 for work. Any help from a Dell  Admin would be nice.

My COD fix hangs on the balance with all of your suggestions LOL.

Thanks,

Tony

Oldwiseguy

Honestly there is really no one you can take it too to fix it without spending close to 1,000. A new motherboard will run you around 400-450 just for the board if you can find one.

Before you do that it would be wise to do some more troubleshooting.

On the front pannel will be diagnostic lights. As the machine boots up  they will sequence in a random order and when fully booted up all the ligths will be out. Boot the machine and watch the lights. if they do not sequence and any stay on not the indication.s

Another  thing to do is to remove all external connections mouse keyboard, and note any indications. The next step after that would be to open the case and remove all the ram stick, all the plug in cards and disconnect the power going to the hard drives and optical drives.

Then powe up the system and watch the diagnostic lights and listen for beeps. you should get errors as things are removed.

With the info you first gave it does sound like some sort of video issue perhaps the card or even a hard disk failure.

When my hard drive died on my system it acted very simular to yours where it would not post .

so when you are removeing the parts you might want to just start with the hard drive. disconnect the power and see if will post. if it does the drive is bad. if not just keep removing parts and trying to boot to see if it will as least post.

DaveT50,

Thanks for the info. I will follow your suggestions this evening and let you know what I find.

I spent $2,200.00 plus another $400.00 for the 24" flat screen three years ago.

Guess it depends on what's wrong as to wether it gets fixed or not.

Thanks again,

Tony

OK, here goes.........

1st boot:

Note ther is 6 USB ports at the rear of the case. A row of two, and below that a row of 4. Plugged everything in. Keyboard, mouse, external drive, printer and the USB extention from the monitor.

It stopped at the BIOS load screen. Lights 1 and 4 are lit.

2nd Boot:

All are now unplugged. BIOS loads, then "Keyboard Failure" Then shows "Performing Automatic Config. for Drives 0 and 1. Just sits there doing nothing. Lights 1 2 and 3 are lit.

3rd Boot:

Only Keyboard and mouse plugged into top two USB slots. Machine boots perfectly. No lights!

4th, 5th and 6th boot:

I found by trial and error that if anything is plugged into the 1st port of the second row, it won't boot . Now everything is plugged in, bypassing that one port. And the PC is working great.

Is it possible one port could be bad? Or am I just waiting for more problems?

1 + 4 isn't a listed error code for the 720, so that's not much help.

Does it matter which USB device is connected to that port, or does it fail when anything is connected there?

If everything causes a failure, then look carefully at the connector on the tower to see if it's bent or the contacts are touching each other. Don't stick anything metal in there! :emotion-5:  If you're using the same USB cable to that port but connecting different peripherials, it also might be the cable.

Are any USB ports marked with a yellow ! or red X in Device Manager? In that case, you might try reinstalling the USB ports.

Ron

AL42 - Please watch the language. The "d-word" isn't acceptable around here, and the moderators might delete your post, if you don't edit it. :emotion-5:

If the USB keyboard doesn't work, you can't use a PS/2 keyboard with USB adaptor to connect to a USB port. The problem is the USB ports, so no matter what keyboard you connect via USB, it won't work. If you have a PS/2 port on the PC, you could plug a USB key into an adaptor and connect it via the PS/2 port.

NOTE: A cheap USB>PS/2  or PS/2>USB adaptor won't work with a keyboard. They're only "passive" adaptors. You need an "active" USB>PS/2 or PS/2>USB  adaptor for a keyboard. In the States, they're about US$10-US$15.

So exactly what OS is on the system now? Are you trying to make a dual boot with Win 7 and XP? If single boot, which OS do you want?

You can try this to clear the keyboard error:

Power off and unplug

Press/hold power button on tower for ~15 sec

Open the case and remove the motherboard battery

Press/hold power button again for ~30 sec

Reinstall the battery (right-side-up!) and test it again.

NOTE: If you don't have an internal floppy drive in this system, you'll probaby get a floppy drive error when you reboot. In that case, just run BIOS Setup and disable the Diskette Drive controller in BIOS.

Ron

hi

i know this particular thread has been kept alive for several years now. however, i think it's important to make my contribution to help others save $. in my experience as a technician, i've noticed that everytime i get to repair one of these dell desktops without ps2 ports, the pc will only recognize dell usb keyboards. have any of u who have been posting ever tried to boot up ur pc's with another dell usb keyboard? this works for me everytime.

with d last dell pc, an inspiron 530, i was unable to get a dell usb keyboard; so after meddling with it for a while, this is what worked for a nondell usb keyboard to be recognized:

WIth the pc turned off, unplug d power cord from the pc, then switch d cmos jumper to the clear position for at least 10 seconds.

then switch back the jumper to the original position, plug the power back into the pc and press the power button to boot up.

Works like a charm.

Somehow, it seems that there is something in the board of the dell usb keyboard or something set by factory default by dell to recognize only the dell usb keyboard.

hope this is useful to some

XPS 400 Solved Keyboard Error Problem.

Thanks to all the posts on the subject because it has saved me a ton of money and time.

I too have had the same problem and I tried the following: CMOS reset, holding in the power button for 60 seconds, taking out the battery, etc... the simple stuff. I finally followed the advice to buy a powered (plug into the wall) USB port hub ($32.00) at Office Max and then tried it. Plugged both the keyboard and mouse into the port hub. At first I got the keyboard error but it still let me into the system configuration where I changed the lineup of my boot sequence.

Upon reboot and loading windows (yea) I got to clicking on the user login Icon and my mouse wouldn't work. I then took another mouse and plugged it into one of the USB ports on the computer and that fixed the mouse problem, for the moment... After logging in I ran the Dell Driver Reset Tool and it gave me a prompt stating that the driver (not sure which one) was disabled and to enable it. I clicked Ok and the system rebooted. I took out the secondary mouse and I didn't get the error on bootup.

History: My USB drivers became corrupted because I was trying to update my Galaxy S Android phone with the latest firmware and I was having a heck of a time getting Kies to recognize my phone. Upon several attempt of plugging in and taking out the phone the system USB Drivers became messed up and thus caused the Keyboard Problem.

Using the combination of the Powered USB port hub and the Dell Driver Reset tool my system is now fixed; Windows loads even without the powered USB hub. --There's no need to replace the motherboard and no need to replace the computer and there was no need to reset CMOS or the battery.

@majx

:emotion-21:

Thanks for sharing your results. Glad the powered USB hub helped resolve the problem. Now you can return it to Office Max! :emotion-17:

Microsoft really needs to find a way to fix the USB drivers when they get corrupted and the keyboard/mouse won't work. Guess that'll have to wait until SP2 of Windows 19, at the rate they're going. :emotion-4:

Ron

Followup.

Being the software tester that I am I decided to test it out further and on the 4th try I encountered the problem again by not having the powered USB hub plugged into the same USB port; it was like some of the USB ports on the computer were turned off (reported in eariler posts). After a few more attempts I found the active port and was able to login again to windows.

To make this a shorter story I downloaded and used "Driver Whiz" ($29.00) and it found some interesting results related to the Intel Chipset and the USB Controller drivers. There were a bunch of drivers that were amiss and the utility assisted in the downloading and installing all of the correct drivers. Here's a short listing of them:

Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8, Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9, Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA, etc...

I beleive that the root of the problem involves both USB hardware/Software from the manufacture (Intel) and its interaction with XP (Microsoft). Other posts state that this happens with other computure manufactures (Gateway). Both companies; Dell and Gateway use Intel motherboards and both have a wide base of XP Window users. I would also guess that this hasn't occured with an AMD processor based system or with another motherboard manufactures like ASUS.

In my case the use plugging in my Cell phone to update the firmware somehow corrupted the USB drivers that Windows uses to communicate with the hardware. I really like the manufactured systems that Dell has put out and being able to login to one spot to download all the necessary drivers but unfortuntly if leaves them with there pants down with situations like this arise. They need to contact and involve Intel in getting a Driver Wizard put together that can reset the Universal Serial BUS on the motherboard that will fix the problem. They would have to create this with a Boot CD that they can create on an external computer or have one sent to them as some persons may not have the boot sequense setup to boot from CD on disabled computers.

I didn't have time to test out all my USB ports and/or take off the Powered USB hub (a Belkin model) to see if the driver updates actually fixed the overall problems. But, at the moment my computer is working great and I'll leave it at that.

Michael J.