Keyboard failure

I have just experienced this problem.

I have a 2 year old, XPS410 which won't boot because I get the "keyboard failure" during the bios boot process.  I have tried to reset the bios, removed the battery and left it unplugged overnight, removed all USB devices except the keyboard, and tried the keyboard in each of the USB ports (6 in back, 2 in front).  Each time the boot stops with the bios keyboard failure message and I can get no further.

Does anyone have any other suggestions before I cry...

try another keyboard and/or try your keyboard on another system.  Look at the connector pins to make sure that they are ok

I had a similar issue. Long story short I copied my hard drive to a second computer, bought a bare bones kit w/PS2 ports, installed the OS and copied the hard drive to the bare bones computer. Dell wanted too much for a replacement mobo and the bare bones allowed for more RAM. If you get a barebones you will have to factor in the OS cost. I suspected mine was a hardware issue since a ipd shuffle was plugged into the port prior to experience this issue.  Other things you might try:

Install a PCI card with USB ports if you can find one($6). I bought one at Frye's Electronics. When the hardware wizard came up I still didn't have a keyboard or mouse to click install.

Reinstall the OS. Same thing, good luck reinstalling an OS without keyboard or mouse.

Try the simple obvious stuff like shutting down and restarting with the keyboard in every different port before spending more time and money.

 wlopatin

Definitely check the keyboard on another system or another keyboard here, as davet50 already suggested. If that doesn't help, check the diagnostic LEDs on front of the tower. Look up the error code here <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>  which might provide some additional info on the problem.

Can you get into BIOS (reboot and press F2)? If you can, make sure all USB ports are enabled. There are mutltiple BIOS settings for USB on the XPS410

 USB Controller: On

 Rear Quad USB: Enabled

 Real Dual USB: Enabled

 Front USB: Enabled

Also Disable "Keyboard Errors" in BIOS and see what happens.

Be sure to save any changes before exiting BIIOS setup.

Ron

Thanks for all the suggestions.  Unfortunately, I didn't make it clear that I had already tried the keyboard in another computer and it works perfectly and I did try every USB port.  Since the keyboard is not even seen during the BIOS part of the boot, the OS is never loaded so this is not a software problem.  The keyboard is not on, no key works, so I cannot get into the bios or anything. 

Will another PCI card with USB ports really work at this point?  or am I just dead at this point with.  At least I have a very recent backup.

Bill

Did you check the diagnostic LED code?

Have you tried booting without any keyboard or mouse attached? Does it load Windows and will the keyboard work now?  If it fails with the "keyboard error", power off the tower, connect the keyboard and try booting again. 

Unless you can get past that "keyboard error" checkpoint in BIOS, installing a PCI card may not get you anywhere, especially if you need to load a driver for the card to function.  :emotion-6:

Ron

Why did It post twice ??  :emotion-12:

This worked for me and is still working for me:

From my May post:

I had the same "keyboard error" message and problem for my XPS 410 system.  The Power-off, unplug, and hold the power switch recommendation did not work for me.  What did work was plugging my keyboard into a powered usb expansion device which was plugged into a usb port on the back of my computer.  This regained keyboard control for getting into BIOS or boot control.  If I switch back to a direct usb connection I get the keyboard error message again.

It's possible your motherboard lost power output for the USB ports, so they can't power the keyboard, but are still able to accept incoming data. A powered USB hub  would provide the power from its own power brick and that may be sufficient to get your system working again. A powered USB hub is pretty inexpensive these days, and if it doesn't work, you could always return it.

Ron

I tried to boot without a keyboard and still the same bios error.  I cannot boot the computer because I cannot get past the bios keyboard failure error message.  Since none of the USB ports work, how can I plug in a powered USB hub and expect that to work?  I am guessing that is won't and that I am really out of luck since I cannot boot at all.  Has anyone gotten past this error or has everyone just given up?

Forgot to mention that the diagnotic lights are 1-2-3 all lit up.

RoHe, your reply "It's possible your motherboard lost power output for the USB ports, so they can't power the keyboard, but are still able to accept incoming data", seem right on.  Does anybody know if Dell has ever made a statement that they had XPS motherboard power problems affecting keyboard use with desktop usb ports?  Numerous customers are having this problem, so what is the official technical support response?  How many customers are getting a stable solution using a powered usb extender?  I know I am. 

My XPS 410 usb ports still work with reading usb memory sticks, game controllers, and 3 powered printers, just not a keyboard anymore.

Tom

Thanks for the suggestion and explanation.  I will see if a friend has one I could borrow.  I think I will also call Dell support and see what they say.

Tom,

Thanks for sharing your idea about the powered USB hub.

It seems very odd to me that the USB ports power all those other devices but just won't power the keyboard. Makes me think that BIOS NVRAM has that keyboard error "burned in" and won't clear, thereby preventing the boot. Have you ever tried clearing NVRAM to reset BIOS to factory defaults while the USB keyboard is connected, but -obviously-  the system powered off and unplugged?

I'll run this past some of the forum experts to see if anyone has any insights, suggestions or solutions.

Ron

Tom,

Some follow-up questions for you, if you don't mind helping...

After you boot with the keyboard connected to the powered hub, will the keyboard be recognized and function normally if you move it to an unpowered, rear USB port on the tower?

Can you get  into BIOS setup using the powered USB hub to drive the keyboard by pressing F2 during the boot process? If you can get into BIOS, scroll down to the section "POST behavior". Disable the setting to report keyboard errors when the computer starts. Save the change and exit setup. It should boot up normally. Now shut down normally and move the keyboard from the powered USB hub to a rear port on the tower. See if it boots now and let us know...

Thanks muchly!

Ron

Ron,

I really don't want to mess with my NVRAM and BIOS due to the risk of something going wrong.  Here is what I tried:

*  While the computer was running from a normal boot-up, I took out my keyboard usb connector from my powered usb hub and put it in one of my front usb ports, and low and behold the keyboard worked after I got a successful "USB Human Interface Device" installed message.

* I had similar luck when I placed the keyboard connector to a back usb port.

* Then I moved it back to the powered usb hub port and it did not work!  I restarted the computer and the F2 key did not work as well as no keyboard typing response to type my Windows password in to log-in.  There was no "keyboard error" message upon boot-up.

* So I moved my keyboard connector back to my front usb port and the keyboard worked again.  I restarted the computer and got into BIOS settings with the F2 key.  All of my usb ports were enabled.  The POST event log showed my keyboard errors when my keyboard was hooked to the powered usb hub.  I left my Post behavior setting to report keyboard errors.

* Bottom line: I have a working keyboard again now with at least two usb ports (1 front and 1 back) and I do not know if my powered usb hub (that I used to get around my original keyboard problem) will work again.  I would think it might work if I power it off and then hook it up later to the computer after a normal boot-up to recognize it.

This keyboard problem has some twisted logic.  I recently upgraded my computer from 2 GB to 4 GB RAM, so I don't know if this had an effect.

Tom