Help

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 01:02 AM

I turn on my computer, and it finds my video card (apparently, because the monitor shows stuff), shows the energy-star logo / dell logo or whatever, and then the hard-drive-reading light comes on and it does nothing. It doesn't display "Phoenix BIOS" version stuff or anything, it doesn't try to read my RAM, it doesn't initialize my drives / keyboard, it just hangs. First time it did that, I took it apart and unplugged my IDE cables and it booted (read my RAM and keyboard and junk anyways, then it did nothing naturally because there was no OS to do anything with), then I turned it off and plugged the IDE cables back in and it booted fine. I used the computer for a couple hours like that. Then I had to reboot. When I rebooted it hung again like before. This time I unplugged the IDE cables and it still hangs. I took out my RAM and everything else I could think of except my video card, and it still hangs. Just sits there trying to read from a non-existent hard drive (or BIOS? whatever, the HD light flashes like mad) and does nothing. Is my motherboard dead? Is my BIOS dead? Is there any hope of fixing it?

**crono_logical** · 05-19-2003, 01:40 AM

Try replacing/removing the CMOS battery and/or short the appropriate jumper on the motherboard to reset the BIOS config? What's stored might be corrupt and confusing the BIOS at boot time as to what it's meant to be doing. Perhaps cleaning the computer out might help too.

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 01:44 AM

I guess that might require knowing which jumper is the appropriate one. I guess I'll try though.

**Endless** · 05-19-2003, 01:46 AM

Did you upgrade something recently? (flashed bios, change of a part, etc...)
Does your MB usually have beep-warnings? Does it do any kind of beeps when you try to boot and it doesn't load at all?

Also, try unplugging the pci/agp cards and plugging them back and what crono suggested. I hope it helps.

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 01:49 AM

No, I haven't changed anything in a fairly long time. Yeah, it has beep warnings. It gave me plenty of beeps when I took out all my RAM / took out my video card. No beeps when it hangs, it just hangs. I'll try taking out all the PCI cards I guess. Thanks for the pointers.

**Citizen Bleys** · 05-19-2003, 01:50 AM

Don't remove any jumpers unless you're *SURE* that it's the CMOS reset jumper. It's much easier to simply remove the CMOS battery, which is about the size of a nickel and looks like a watch battery. You can't miss it.

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 05:48 PM

I took out the CMOS battery and it reset and whatnot. I took out every card and put them in one by one as I booted the computer, and it booted fine every time.

I think I've further narrowed down the problem though. Two days ago I spilled iced tea all over my wonderful keyboard. Well some keys stopped working, so I was using my mom's keyboard off of her ancient PII 266. Apparently the computer just refuses to boot with my mom's keyboard plugged in. It boots with no keyboard plugged in, or with my now-destroyed keyboard plugged in. However if I boot with my tead-up keyboard plugged in, the BIOS gives me a 201: STUCK KEY error or something and beeps like crazy, but then lets me boot, and then all the keys work except the numberpad and both shift keys (why the shift keys don't work is beyond me, I only spilled a little bit of tea on the numberpad, nowhere near the shift keys; one shift key does nothing now when pressed, and if I press the other one and type, no keypresses at all are registered by the computer). But whatever. The way to get the computer to boot and be usable is to plug in my old destroyed keyboard, turn on the computer, wait until the bios loads and finds the keyboard and gives me STUCK KEY errors, then yank out that keyboard and plug in my mom's keyboard between the time it starts booting and the time my boot loader kicks in.

My only question now is, is there any sane reason a computer should hang during the BIOS load just because a certain kind of (as far as I know standard) keyboard is plugged in? Or is it just a huge coincidence that doing my keyboard-swapping happens to boot the computer fine. I expect my motherboard to implode any day now.

**Endless** · 05-19-2003, 06:21 PM

With the ice-tea-keyboard, tell me exactly what the beep sequence is, the exact error message, and the bios version. With that I might find what key(s) are stuck so that you clean them.

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 07:43 PM

Ah, I just ripped the whole keyboard apart and cleaned everything and it works semi-OK now, minus a few keys I didn't really need anyways. I just wish I knew why my mom's keyboard caused so much trouble. Thanks for the help everyone.

**Citizen Bleys** · 05-19-2003, 08:20 PM

Dude, just get a new keyboard. They're 20 bucks.

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 08:25 PM

If I'd have known it was the keyboard that was causing so much trouble, I would've. This keyboard has a USB hub in it too though, so it's worth saving.

**Citizen Bleys** · 05-19-2003, 08:45 PM

Get another one just like it.

BTW, you've got the same keyboard I do, I think. Micros~1 keyboard with 2 USB ports and internet keys along the top?

**Dr Unne** · 05-19-2003, 08:55 PM

Yes, that's the one. It's mostly fixed now except that I lost a couple parts when I was ripping it apart (now I don't have a working Windows key on the left, which I'm actually really thankful for, beacuse it annoyed the heck out of me), and the shift key sticks now, but oh well. I can't even afford $20.

**Citizen Bleys** · 05-19-2003, 10:00 PM

Yuck. 'cause that's a $60 keyboard, and it's definitely worth getting another just like it.

I like having my mouse plugged into my keyboard, 'cause now I never run out of cord. (I hate cordless mice because they cut out and sometimes the battery dies.)

**Yamaneko** · 05-19-2003, 10:38 PM

Sometimes? Ha. I have to change my batteries on a weekly basis. Hmm... that keyboard sounds neat.

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