Non-Responsive PS/2

C

colinhugg

New Member
I have an HP Pavillion 775y (P4 HT, 512 MB RAM) - all original. I'm pretty sure the PSU is bad (I can jiggle the power cord and hear a 'velcro-like' sound). But here's the thing. When it boots, it gives me a "DISK BOOT FAILURE..." message. It knows the HDD is there, I don't get any errors, etc., but the keyboard (PS/2) is totally non-responsive throughout the whole process. I tried to repair Windows, but I couldn't because I couldn't push 'R' on the keyboard to repair. I know faulty PSUs can cause a keyboard to not work intermittently, but my question is: is it possible that the PSU shorted out the keyboard controller, but if so, why do I not get any POST beeps or error messages related to the keyboard and/or why did it not short out the whole board? Thanks!
 
that velcro sound is basically sparks flying between the plug and the PSU...
try unplugging the keyboard when booting up... might be because the keyboard is attached and no updated driver is installed for that particular keyboard...
 
Well, the story goes that a family member asked me to work on it and told me about how he tried to partition the disk and flash the BIOS, but I just recently got the time to actually sit down and troubleshoot it. I got the last version of the BIOS for that machine, but it's an executable which obviously doesn't help me any since I can't even boot to anything. I ordered a PS/2 to USB adapter to see if I could at least get the keyboard to work that way. I'll try your suggestion and post my results. Thanks!
 
Well, ps/2 keyboards require you to plug them in than reboot, they need to be found in the boot sequence in order to work. If you suspect the psu, replace it, make sure though that you purchase it from somewhere that has a good return policy in case you discover that is not the issue.
 
Well, I tried more stuff. I stripped it down and tried booting the computer w/ and w/o ps/2 devices plugged in...nothing....I pulled the RAM out and booted and FINALLY got a POST error. Plugged that back in, finally found what I think is the CMOS jumper, reset it and rebooted. I got to a POST screen tellin' me to push F2 to continue w/the defaults, but w/o any keyboard intervention (obviously) it just loads the defaults and goes ahead with the boot. I did notice when I first hit the power button that all the lights on the keyboard light up like it found it and powered it up, but then it becomes unresponsive (no f1 key to go into setup). BTW, PSU is not bad to the best of my knowledge. Static sound was 'cuz of a smaller plug than the receptacle.
 
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I booted the comp using a UBCD for XP SP1 and found that the hard drive was bad. I took the HD out just to make sure and put it in a machine that I knew was good and it failed. I guess I'll be replacing a HD. LOL. What a pain!
 
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