Last week, my keyboard stopped working on me... well at least after Windows (XP) boot up.

The night before, I had no problems with it, and when I tried to login the next morning, my keyboard wouldn't type to log into my account on the computer.

I checked 3 keyboards that I have, and all of them did the same thing. I tried the same keyboards on my old 333mhz computer (the one I'm on now sadly), and they all worked fine.

I even tried switching the PS/2 port - and one side it said the keyboard wasn't plugged in, and on the other side it gave me no errors.

I tried again on my computer, and I could get into the bios setup fine (via the DEL key), but when I booted it up, it didn't want to type. :/

*sigh*

So I went online to try and fine a PS/2 to USB adaptor to try and get it to work that way, so I waited 4 days, and tried it via USB. It gives me the keyboard error, and asks me if I want to continue (how can I, if the "keyboard is not plugged in". The USB keyboard option is enabled in the bios. I even disabled it, and reenabled it to see if that would do anything... nothing...

*another sigh*

So I'm stuck with a computer that wont let me login.

Is there a way to fix this, without reformating the partition (I have email saved, and various files saved on the C partition that haven't been saved to another partition yet.

I don't have an restore points on the partition either. I disabled them after my last format (what I always do). Nor do I have any repair disks either.

Any suggestions?

I've about had it with this old piece of crap 6 1/2 year old computer.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

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No backups, no restore points and no recovery discs...

No XP disc?

I have a similar problem. Sometimes (not always) my keyboard hangs when booting XP and I cannot complete my log-in as there is no response from the keyboard when I try entering my password. I found this post while looking for a permanent fix for this problem, and if anyone out there knows of one, I would be grateful. For now I have a workaround which involves shutting the machine down (using the mouse), unplugging the (PS2) keyboard from the motherboard, plugging it back in again and rebooting. Usually one reboot is enough, if not, I repeat the cycle until the keyboard eventually responds. Rebooting without unplugging the keyboard in this situation does not work. Hope this workaround helps those in a similar situation for now, but a proper fix would be great. Thanks.

Member Avatar for Geek-Master

By any chance did you install anything that previous night, that you might have downloaded from the net? That would indicate a possible virus, possibly.

The average computer's life span is 3-5 years before failures will begin. So it could be possible you might have lost data from you hard drive that has affected your keyboards device driver, possibly. Since you are able to enter the BIOS, which is basic input a.k.a. keyboard and basic output. Your hard drive might be corrupt or damaged.

A good way to find out if your Hard Drive is still good, is to use another Known Working Computer and plug your HD into it. If it doesn't work, then you will know that your HD is corrupt. If you can get into it, use your time wisely and backup everything important to you. And also if you are able to get into your hard drive from another computer, you might have bad controllers on the HD or motherboard, the PS/2 port is having some trouble, etc.

I hope my help is useful in your recovery.

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