30.03.2017, 23.34, VanguardLH kirjoitti:
wrote:

I have inherited a HP PC 2026 that is working great even with W10.
But it seems to have a keyboard problem that I do not know how to
overcome. When I boot up, I see 'keyboard error' flash on the screen
at the start of boot. Other than that the keyboard works fine when
W10 is up and running. However, I can't get into the BIOS, and I
think it is because at that time the sysem is not recognizing the
keyboard, and so pressing whatever function key does no good.
I don't know what key is supposed to get me into the BIOS, but i have
tried them all I think.

Can someone tell me how I can get into the BIOS?

If you are attaching the keyboard to a PS/2 port, make sure the keyboard
supports the PS/2 hardware protocol. If you are attaching the keyboard
to a USB port, make sure the keyboard supports the USB protocol.

Simply attaching a passive USB-to-PS2 adapter onto a keyboard's cable
does not magically convert a USB-only keyboard to a PS/2 keyboard. An
active converter is required to do the hardware protocol conversion.
For a USB-only keyboard, you would have to buy an active converter
dongle. Some USB keyboards incorporate logic on their PCB to detect
which hardware protocol to use but that means the keyboard must be
advertised to support both PS/2 and USB. If it just says USB then it is
a USB-only keyboard and cannot be used on a PS/2 port (unless you buy an
active dongle to do the conversion).

Does "HP PC 2026" mean it is the one linked below?

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/.../model/5180011

I could not find mention of a PS/2 port but then I do not know that I
found the support page for your PC. If there is no PS/2 port(s) then
ignore the above warning about mismatch on USB and PS/2 connections.

How old is the PC? If over 3 years old then it might be time to replace
the coin cell CMOS battery and reset the CMOS table. CMOS requires a
battery to retain its settings. If the battery gets too weak or dies,
values in the CMOS table get erased or worse will be corrupted. So
after replacing the battery, you should use the mobo header to reset the
CMOS table to force it to load values from the BIOS EEPROMs. While most
new PCs will have their coin cell batteries last for about 5 years, I've
seen some that required replacing the battery at just 3 years. When the
PC is powered up, it will receive +3V to power the CMOS table. It's
when you power off that the battery must be okay to retain the settings
in the CMOS table. Could be some corrupted setting in the CMOS table
for the keyboard config is preventing use of the keyboard during boot.
When the OS loads the USB driver the keyboard works but the BIOS
settings in the CMOS table might not be properly configured to recognize
the USB device. BIOS settings are not something that HP reveals in
their online documentation (using the above URL).

Is this one of those keyboards with an Fn key that lets you decide
whether to use the special definitions for the Function keys or whether
to use the standard (OS) definitions for the Function keys? I've had
those and the Fn option might not stick between power cycles of the
keyboard. That is, you want to hit F8 (to get into the BIOS) but the
damn keyboard defaults to using some special function noted above "F8"
for that key. You have to keep hitting the Fn key to get back the
standard defintions (scan codes) for the Function keys. If the keyboard
has an Fn key, try using it to see if then you can get the BIOS to
recognize that an F8 scan code got sent by the keyboard. After than
fiasco, I never again bought a keyboard that required using an Fn key to
toggle between the standard and special defintions of the F keys.

Have you tried a different keyboard? Could be your old one is flaky.
Don't just power cycle the computer (since power may not actually drop
for the USB ports so the keyboard remains powered). Power down and
disconnect the keyboard, pause, reconnect the USB keyboard, and then
power up the PC. This is one of the troubleshooting steps noted by HP.

During power up, the CPU will sent a Reset signal to all hardware
(connected to the mobo). That puts the hardware in a known starting
state. You should see the LEDs flash on the keyboard when you do a cold
power boot which is its signal that it got the Reset signal. I don't
use a wireless keyboard (mentioned by McGraw) to know if the keyboard
will flash on cold boot. It may not because it would be the USB
receiver dongle that gets the Reset signal (versus a wired keyboard
getting the reset).

If using a wireless keyboard, is it within unobstructed range of the
receiver dongle? Make sure the keyboard is within 20 feet, or less, or
the receiver dongle and there are no TVs, monitors, desks, etc, between
the keyboard and dongle. Try moving the receiver dongle to a USB port
on the front of the PC case, especially if it is a Bluetooth dongle.
There still are some IR (infrared) wireless keyboards being sold and
they require a line-of-sight connection. Move any wireless phones and
base stations away from your PC. If wireless, replace the batteries in
the keyboard and retest.


Another possibilty is the keyboard is connected to a USB3-port, at which
point it wont be recognized until Windows has loaded USB3-drivers..


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Thomas Wendell
Helsinki, Finland
Translation to/from FI/SWE not always accurate
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