USB Keybord not working until system fully booted

[Paul]

I kept an ancient keyboard that is not USB and plugs directly into the
keyboard port on the MB. I use it when I need to get into BIOS when
it is not set up to support USB during boot. I don't know where you
could get your hands on such an old keyboard, but there are certain to
be many of them lying around.

You can get a PS/2 keyboard for $14.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823131073

http://www.amazon.com/KeyTronicEMS-...ics&qid=1239882716&sr=8-1?ie=UTF8&tag=keyb-20

It's the same keyboard I'm typing on right now. The "A" and "S"
key are a little worn from gaming. The keyboard is roughly ten
years old. It's been cleaned a couple times, and the one I've got,
disassembles pretty well. It has three plastic membranes inside, welded
together to maintain alignment. You can carefully rinse them with
water and air dry over a couple days, to fix things like coffee spills.

Paul

 

[Andy]

Go to you're local collage or businesses some of them keep the old hard ware
just for the same reason you do

 

[Dominique]

I kept an ancient keyboard that is not USB and plugs directly into the
keyboard port on the MB. I use it when I need to get into BIOS when
it is not set up to support USB during boot. I don't know where you
could get your hands on such an old keyboard, but there are certain to
be many of them lying around.

Almost all online stores (if not all) carry them. I don't consider them
ancient. When I build a computer, if the motherboard has PS/2 ports on it,
I get a PS/2 keyboard for it. The port is there, why not use it.

 

[charlie]

Almost all online stores (if not all) carry them. I don't consider them
ancient. When I build a computer, if the motherboard has PS/2 ports on it,
I get a PS/2 keyboard for it. The port is there, why not use it.

Yes, you can get P/S 2 Keyboards from web stores such as Newegg. But,
most of the usual local sources (Staples, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Best
Buy, etc. carry USB keyboards and mice these days. P/S 2 Keyboards and
mice are becoming rare.

Most of the more recent MBDs have "Legacy" USB support that will enable
a USB keyboard and even a USB mouse. Some of the wireless/infra red
keyboards don't work until a driver is present. Seems that the
wireless/infra red keyboards that behave this way have a rather poorly
designed USB interface module.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, charlie

Yes, you can get P/S 2 Keyboards from web stores such as Newegg. But,
most of the usual local sources (Staples, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Best
Buy, etc. carry USB keyboards and mice these days. P/S 2 Keyboards and
mice are becoming rare.

I got one at PCWorld (in the UK) about a year ago.

Most of the more recent MBDs have "Legacy" USB support that will enable
a USB keyboard and even a USB mouse. Some of the wireless/infra red

Yes, but if the setting isn't enabled in the BIOS ... (-:

keyboards don't work until a driver is present. Seems that the
wireless/infra red keyboards that behave this way have a rather poorly
designed USB interface module.

Must be! There's no reason the PC has to even know it is using a
wireless/IR keyboard, AFAICS.

 

[Allen Drake]

There are adapters from USB to PS2.

Thanks. I decided to keep the one I have in case I need it to get to
BIOS and make a selection in dual boot mode. I find I never boot to
WinXP any more and use iBoot to get there from Win7.

Al.

 

[Allen Drake]

Whether it's dual boot or not really shouldn't matter. BIOS is accessed long
before either option kicks in. If it's the dual boot option menu that you
can't navigate around, then that's a different issue than entering BIOS.

Thanks. I am not really sure what is going on but I have worked around
it for now.

Regards.

Al.

 

[Allen Drake]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008650%
20600009661&IsNodeId=1&name=PS%2f2

Great link. Thanks. I will pick one and place an order this weekend.

Al.

 

[Allen Drake]

Have you tried switching the keyboard to another USB port?

Yousuf Khan

I tried to find one that worked but no luck. The problem must be
related to something else. I will stumble on it some day I'm sure.

Thanks.

Al.

 

[Allen Drake]

Or fetching an older USB keyboard from the recycle bin before the
collectors take it away.

I have several very old ones. I wanted a black one to match
everything else but the ones I have are from when there were only
white. I like the link supplied by Dominique. I can't believe some of
the more expensive ones. I won't be ordering them but very impressive.

Al.

 

[bd]

I have several very old ones. I wanted a black one to match
everything else but the ones I have are from when there were only
white. I like the link supplied by Dominique. I can't believe some of
the more expensive ones. I won't be ordering them but very impressive.

Al.

I enabled the legacy USB setting in the bios and now my keyboard works
during bootup - e.g. going into safe mode.

 

[Joe Morris]

Yes, you can get P/S 2 Keyboards from web stores such as Newegg. But, most
of the usual local sources (Staples, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Best Buy,
etc. carry USB keyboards and mice these days. P/S 2 Keyboards and mice are
becoming rare.

We got a nice chuckle at the office when we recently bought several thin-
and zero-client boxes from Wyse. Each one came with a keyboard and mouse -
with a PS/2 connector on each one. I've been wondering what overstock
auction Wyse found to be irresistable.

Joe

 

[Allen Drake]

I enabled the legacy USB setting in the bios and now my keyboard works
during bootup - e.g. going into safe mode.

OK, I didn't try safe mode. I will give it a try tonight if I get
time. I am taking a break from trying to research another problem I am
having with my newest build. Something about this ASUS MoBo getting
errors known as "Chassis Intruded...Fatal error..System halted." Seems
to be only with the ASUS boards. That and trying to decide which SSD
to order. Sometimes life can be so complicated.



Al.

 

[charlie]

OK, I didn't try safe mode. I will give it a try tonight if I get
time. I am taking a break from trying to research another problem I am
having with my newest build. Something about this ASUS MoBo getting
errors known as "Chassis Intruded...Fatal error..System halted." Seems
to be only with the ASUS boards. That and trying to decide which SSD
to order. Sometimes life can be so complicated.



Al.

It's likely a missing jumper. The chassis signal line is generally
jumpered to ground on a MBD header or connector.
The Asus MBD (M4A79 Deluxe) I'm using on this older P/C has a four pin
header labeled chassis with +5VStby, open, chassis signal, and ground.

 

[Allen Drake]

It's likely a missing jumper. The chassis signal line is generally
jumpered to ground on a MBD header or connector.
The Asus MBD (M4A79 Deluxe) I'm using on this older P/C has a four pin
header labeled chassis with +5VStby, open, chassis signal, and ground.

I have been trying to find it in the manual but nothing so far. I am
looking for the location on the board. I have the M4A87TA/USB3. All I
have been reading says it seems only the ASUS has this problem. I am
already thinking of returning it and getting a newer or better one but
I am not sure which would be a good choice. This was a spur of the
moment purchase when I stopped in to a local small Computer shop
looking to upgrade an existing system when I walked out with it and an
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T. I looking at them and decided to buy a new an
Antec Nine Hundred Two, Thermaltake TR2 RX 850 Watt PSU, GeForce GTX
550 Ti, 8 Gigs and a 3TB Seagate. Now I am trying to decide on what
SSD to put in it. After I return the MoBo that is.

Al.

 

[Paul]

I have been trying to find it in the manual but nothing so far. I am
looking for the location on the board. I have the M4A87TA/USB3. All I
have been reading says it seems only the ASUS has this problem. I am
already thinking of returning it and getting a newer or better one but
I am not sure which would be a good choice. This was a spur of the
moment purchase when I stopped in to a local small Computer shop
looking to upgrade an existing system when I walked out with it and an
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T. I looking at them and decided to buy a new an
Antec Nine Hundred Two, Thermaltake TR2 RX 850 Watt PSU, GeForce GTX
550 Ti, 8 Gigs and a 3TB Seagate. Now I am trying to decide on what
SSD to put in it. After I return the MoBo that is.

Al.

"Chassis Intruded" isn't always related to the Chassis Intrusion
header. Sometimes this is a BIOS bug, or an overrun in the memory
used to store BIOS information. A similar thing happens when a
user fully populates RAM on some boards, the BIOS can't configure
the address space properly, and out pops a "USB overcurrent" error.
The USB is not actually overloaded, but some software structure is
corrupted (all because some BIOS designer didn't test with a full
load of RAM).

You can start by checking the Newegg reviews for the motherboard, or
use the vip.asus.com forums and see if the problem has been reported.
Each motherboard has its own forum. The server is quite slow.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=M4A87TD/USB3&SLanguage=en-us

You can then check the support.asus.com download site for a BIOS update.
I don't see anything here with a matching description.

http://support.asus.com/download.as...USB3&p=1&s=24&os=17&hashedid=nlWYrI9wlNIYHAaa

The CPU Support chart is here.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/...=M4A87TD/USB3&os=17&hashedid=nlWYrI9wlNIYHAaa

"Phenom IIX6 1055T(HDT55TWFK6DGR),
2.8GHz,95W,rev.E0,SocketAM3,6-Core ALL 0704"

The minimum BIOS version for the 1055T processor is 0704. If the
BIOS in the system right now pre-dates that version, then just
about anything could happen. (If the motherboard wouldn't run
at all, you'd check for a paper sticker on the BIOS chip, with the
programmed version printed on it.)

Some test cases:

1) Remove some RAM and retest. It could be that the Chassis Intrusion
message only shows when the system is relatively full of RAM. Try
with just one stick of RAM.
2) If the system appears stable, try a BIOS update. You don't want to
get half way through a BIOS flash and have the system fail. Perhaps
with a newer BIOS (0704 or later), the symptoms will change.

I looked through the M4A87TD/USB3 manual (as I don't think there is a
M4A87TA/USB3), and don't see a Chassis Intrusion header. So I'm guessing
this is BIOS code triggered by a corruption of some sort - basically
bad BIOS code, where the error seen is a side effect, rather than
"an actual intrusion".

HTH,
Paul

 

[Allen Drake]

"Chassis Intruded" isn't always related to the Chassis Intrusion
header. Sometimes this is a BIOS bug, or an overrun in the memory
used to store BIOS information. A similar thing happens when a
user fully populates RAM on some boards, the BIOS can't configure
the address space properly, and out pops a "USB overcurrent" error.
The USB is not actually overloaded, but some software structure is
corrupted (all because some BIOS designer didn't test with a full
load of RAM).

You can start by checking the Newegg reviews for the motherboard, or
use the vip.asus.com forums and see if the problem has been reported.
Each motherboard has its own forum. The server is quite slow.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=M4A87TD/USB3&SLanguage=en-us

You can then check the support.asus.com download site for a BIOS update.
I don't see anything here with a matching description.

http://support.asus.com/download.as...USB3&p=1&s=24&os=17&hashedid=nlWYrI9wlNIYHAaa

The CPU Support chart is here.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/...=M4A87TD/USB3&os=17&hashedid=nlWYrI9wlNIYHAaa

"Phenom IIX6 1055T(HDT55TWFK6DGR),
2.8GHz,95W,rev.E0,SocketAM3,6-Core ALL 0704"

The minimum BIOS version for the 1055T processor is 0704. If the
BIOS in the system right now pre-dates that version, then just
about anything could happen. (If the motherboard wouldn't run
at all, you'd check for a paper sticker on the BIOS chip, with the
programmed version printed on it.)

Some test cases:

1) Remove some RAM and retest. It could be that the Chassis Intrusion
message only shows when the system is relatively full of RAM. Try
with just one stick of RAM.
2) If the system appears stable, try a BIOS update. You don't want to
get half way through a BIOS flash and have the system fail. Perhaps
with a newer BIOS (0704 or later), the symptoms will change.

I looked through the M4A87TD/USB3 manual (as I don't think there is a
M4A87TA/USB3), and don't see a Chassis Intrusion header. So I'm guessing
this is BIOS code triggered by a corruption of some sort - basically
bad BIOS code, where the error seen is a side effect, rather than
"an actual intrusion".

HTH,
Paul

Thanks Paul.

This only happened once and everything seems fine after restarting. I
remember getting a blue screen but I don't remember what it said
exactly. "Gathering information" I think. I looked at the reports in
the event manager but am unable to decode any of that technical
jargon. Usually I wouldn't be concerned about a one time error but
after reading all the posts that Google showed about others not
recovering from such an event I am wondering if I should just dump
that board back to the guy that sold it to me and go with another.

I don't think removing RAM at this point will tell me anything if
things are now ok. (maybe) but how would I know.

I have only 8 Gigs installed so I guess it is not "fully Populated".

The BIOS number is 1102 and I thought I saw a 2202 or something like
that which was offered as an upgrade but that was not on the ASUS
site. Your number of 0704 doesn't look like I have the right
reference. I am not in a hurry to upgrade anything unless I know what
issues are addresses especially if there is a risk involved.

Do you still suggest an update?

My new ASUS laptop sees a message popping up all the time to update
the BOIS but I have always closed it out. My thoughts were why would a
new computer be needing it so soon.

I will go to the links you provided and do some more research before
I act on anything.
Thank you very much.

Al.

 

[Allen Drake]

"Chassis Intruded" isn't always related to the Chassis Intrusion
header. Sometimes this is a BIOS bug, or an overrun in the memory
used to store BIOS information. A similar thing happens when a
user fully populates RAM on some boards, the BIOS can't configure
the address space properly, and out pops a "USB overcurrent" error.
The USB is not actually overloaded, but some software structure is
corrupted (all because some BIOS designer didn't test with a full
load of RAM).

You can start by checking the Newegg reviews for the motherboard, or
use the vip.asus.com forums and see if the problem has been reported.
Each motherboard has its own forum. The server is quite slow.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=M4A87TD/USB3&SLanguage=en-us

You can then check the support.asus.com download site for a BIOS update.
I don't see anything here with a matching description.

http://support.asus.com/download.as...USB3&p=1&s=24&os=17&hashedid=nlWYrI9wlNIYHAaa

The only updates I see says it will improve EPU function so is it
worth it for that one feature? Am I concerned about the improved
performance of SATA5/6 ports under IDE Mode? What does that translate
to perhaps?

 

[Paul]

The only updates I see says it will improve EPU function so is it
worth it for that one feature? Am I concerned about the improved
performance of SATA5/6 ports under IDE Mode? What does that translate
to perhaps?

I could not see a specific update for M4A87TD/USB3 that addressed your
issue. I was checking the CPU support chart, to see what the minimum
BIOS version would be. If your BIOS is currently >0704 , then you have
enough of a BIOS version to support your particular processor. No further
BIOS update is needed, unless it specifically addresses your issue.

The Chassis Intrusion function might still exist, it's just permanently
jumpered (by a copper track). If they don't provide a header for wiring
up the chassis, then they'd just keep it disabled. Which would make it
puzzling why it would be flagged. And then the most likely scenario,
is some kind of address space issue, where the processor is reading
things that aren't actually the register in question.

If this is a transient condition, and only occurred the one time, I
don't see an effective way to deal with it. That's the nature of
bug fixing - if the condition is reproducible, you can work on it,
and if not, you're stuck.

Paul

 

[James Silverton]

I could not see a specific update for M4A87TD/USB3 that addressed your
issue. I was checking the CPU support chart, to see what the minimum
BIOS version would be. If your BIOS is currently >0704 , then you have
enough of a BIOS version to support your particular processor. No further
BIOS update is needed, unless it specifically addresses your issue.

The Chassis Intrusion function might still exist, it's just permanently
jumpered (by a copper track). If they don't provide a header for wiring
up the chassis, then they'd just keep it disabled. Which would make it
puzzling why it would be flagged. And then the most likely scenario,
is some kind of address space issue, where the processor is reading
things that aren't actually the register in question.

If this is a transient condition, and only occurred the one time, I
don't see an effective way to deal with it. That's the nature of
bug fixing - if the condition is reproducible, you can work on it,
and if not, you're stuck.

My previous machine gave me the same wireless USB keyboard problem under
Windows XP. Since I could buy a PS1 keyboard for under $10 I left one
plugged in, also to allow accessing set-up. Inelegant but effective!

My Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard don't give me that problem under
Windows 7.


--


James Silverton, Potomac

I'm *not* (e-mail address removed)