PS2 wired kb won't work ...

[RJK]

Heeeeelp ! ...for a friend please :-

Story related to me on the 'phone ! (...XP platform I think - possibly Home
ed. or Professional PC brand name Advent / from PC World )
According to him :-

"...installed a WebCam and things started to go wrong. ...USB wireless kb
and mouse stopped working. ...disconnected webcam and restored Windows to a
previous restore point and that didn't fix it. i.e. kb and mouse still
would not work Tried connecting older PS2 kb and mouse and they will not
work." ( I hope he powered down !!!)

Anyway ! on the phone a little while ago I asked him to disconnect
everything USB, make sure the PS2 kb and mouse were correctly connected and
told him to switch off and then try [Del] and or [F1] very soon after power
up, to try and get into bios. (I wanted to see if PS2 kb and mouse were
enabled - ...which was daft I know !

[F1] did it, (Phoenix/Award bios), so he got into the bios okay but, the kb
cursor keys don't work. ...so I'm wondering if he's blown up his kb
controller chip.

Eons ago I had a fight with PS2 wired kb and mouse versus USB wireless KB
and mouse, and hit a point where my wired kb and mouse wouldn't work but, it
was so long ago I can't remeber how I solved it , .....I have suspicion that
I cleared CMOS settings using the motherboard jumper.

Anyway, does anyone know, off hand, how force a Phoenix / Award bios to go
to failsafe at power-up ???

Any thoughts gratefully accepted,

regards, Richard

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Thought 1: What does this issue have to do with Windows 98?

Thought 2: You want this to appear in the Win98 group because you're lazy --
because you can more easily find it, because this is "where you hang out"
and XP groups are still getting several hundreds of posts per day. Can't
think of any other reason...

I see you are using OE as a newsreader. Ever hear of Ctrl-H? Makes it really
easy to find replies to your posts.

Thought 3: I don't think this is the problem, but you can reset pretty much
any CMOS by simply removing the circular battery from the mother board
(power cord disconnected, of course), waiting a minute or so, and then
reinserting it. Close up the box and start. Again, I don't think that's the
problem, and I'd *strongly* recommend that the user write down every last
existing CMOS setting to get back to peak performance after the issue is
resolved, however that may come about.

(Removal of the 98 group from the To header seriously considered, but then
you'd probably never see it. Please remove it if replying. I'll see it,
anyway. XPers, whom I hope will have better suggestions, please remove the
98 group from your replies. Thanks!)

 

[ported]

Thought 1: What does this issue have to do with Windows 98?

Thought 2: You want this to appear in the Win98 group because you're lazy --
because you can more easily find it, because this is "where you hang out"
and XP groups are still getting several hundreds of posts per day. Can't
think of any other reason...

I see you are using OE as a newsreader. Ever hear of Ctrl-H? Makes it really
easy to find replies to your posts.

Thought 3: I don't think this is the problem, but you can reset pretty much
any CMOS by simply removing the circular battery from the mother board
(power cord disconnected, of course), waiting a minute or so, and then
reinserting it. Close up the box and start. Again, I don't think that's the
problem, and I'd *strongly* recommend that the user write down every last
existing CMOS setting to get back to peak performance after the issue is
resolved, however that may come about.

(Removal of the 98 group from the To header seriously considered, but then
you'd probably never see it. Please remove it if replying. I'll see it,
anyway. XPers, whom I hope will have better suggestions, please remove the
98 group from your replies. Thanks!)

I didnt understand a word of your conversation with the o/p, ... and what
the heck does ctrl/h do? when would one use it?

 

[Lil' Dave]

Heeeeelp ! ...for a friend please :-

Story related to me on the 'phone ! (...XP platform I think - possibly
Home ed. or Professional PC brand name Advent / from PC World )

That's clear as mud.

According to him :-

"...installed a WebCam and things started to go wrong. ...USB wireless kb
and mouse stopped working. ...disconnected webcam and restored Windows to
a previous restore point and that didn't fix it. i.e. kb and mouse still
would not work Tried connecting older PS2 kb and mouse and they will not
work." ( I hope he powered down !!!)

Anyway ! on the phone a little while ago I asked him to disconnect
everything USB, make sure the PS2 kb and mouse were correctly connected
and told him to switch off and then try [Del] and or [F1] very soon after
power up, to try and get into bios. (I wanted to see if PS2 kb and mouse
were enabled - ...which was daft I know !

[F1] did it, (Phoenix/Award bios), so he got into the bios okay but, the
kb

But, the PS2 keyboard does work to some extent as you state this yourself.

cursor keys don't work. ...so I'm wondering if he's blown up his kb
controller chip.

Which key on he keyboard is the "cursor" key?

Could be one data line being flaky, if the entire keyboard controller was
defunct, the F1 would not have worked.

Eons ago I had a fight with PS2 wired kb and mouse versus USB wireless KB
and mouse, and hit a point where my wired kb and mouse wouldn't work but,
it was so long ago I can't remeber how I solved it , .....I have suspicion
that I cleared CMOS settings using the motherboard jumper.

Yes, makes sense.

Anyway, does anyone know, off hand, how force a Phoenix / Award bios to
go to failsafe at power-up ???

Same way as all of 'em do on a PC. You got the Phoenix bios. A strictly
Award version uses "del" to get in the bios setup.

Dave

 

[RJK]

Thanks to all who responded, ..yesterday I got to sit in front of the kb and
mouseless PC and it turned out to one of those heavenly rare PC's where the
user didn't have anything stored in it, that he couldn't afford to lose.
So, I got a hard wired USB optical mouse working in Windows normal mode, and
initiated the "manufacturers system box" factory restore, (from a drive
image), and he's happy with that.

regards, Richard