Keyboard error or no keyboard present

[sally-j]

Hi there,

I am running windows ME and just recently my keyboard started not responding properly. When you type nothing comes up but you can hear a "beeping/clicking" sound from inside the hard drive. All of a sudden loads of characters appear (presumably the ones you have pressed) and then the keyboard may work for a while before going dead again. I have bought a new one to rule out the keyboard itself and its just the same.

However now when I boot up the lights appear briefly on the keyboard and then go out again and the message "keyboard error or no keyboard present" appears, it also says press F4 to skip etc.... obviously I can't press anything as it doesn't work so that is as far as I can get - i.e. no where!! Sometimes it will flash this up and then go on to boot up ok but this is rare and when it does I try to check as much as I can for faults etc. However, I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm stuck - do I have a virus? - I have AVG installed and Zonealarm and possibly Norton if its still in date! Can anyboby help with this or is it wise to ditch it all and buy a new one!

Cheers.

[seatsd]

Is the "no keyboard" error just text on a black screen before any windows comes up? If so, then you can pretty much rule out a virus. And since you already tried another keyboard, it's probably the motherboard flaking out. There's not anything you can do except replace the mobo, and that is probably not worth it depending on the rest of computer.

[sally-j]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes the message appears on a black screen before anything else comes up so I can't really do much at all. I am going to try using a keyboard from the USB port just as a last resort before buying new but I think I'm headed that way. The one I've got is about 5 years old and has had a lot of use so it's not bad I suppose. Again many thanks for your comments.
Regards, sally-j.