Dead Keyboard

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Postby ardypilot » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:50 pm

My FS PC has three USB ports- one used by my joystick, one by my mouse, and one for the keyboard- however, when I want to use my external harddrive which requires two USB ports (one for data and one for power), I plug in an adapter that changes the old analog mouse port into a USB and take replace the joystick with the left over.

I was doing this routine today, as I have been for a while, and all of a sudden, my keyboard decides not to work. Everything was booting up as normal, my mouse was operative, lights on the external harddrive were lit as usual, however the black and white boot screen showed no keyboard detected, and no lights were flashing on it either- thought perhaps the USB port that handles it may have cuffed it, so tried swapping around the mouse and keyboard, and then the keyboard and harddrive ports, then unplugging all the harddrive cables and just running the keyboard and mouse, but every time the keyboard was not recognize.

From this I then assumed the keyboard must have died, so for a final test, I took it upstairs to the family PC, plugged it in, and it worked fine first time! huh.gif

Any ideas on what the problem could be / how I can fix it?

Cheers.
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Postby NZ255 » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:02 pm

Strange.....my wireless USB keyborad has stopped working a few days ago as well.

Would love to have it working again. Yes....I've changed the batteries tongue.gif
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Postby Adamski » Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:54 am

Trolly wrote:
QUOTE (Trolly @ Apr 28 2009, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Any ideas on what the problem could be / how I can fix it?

I've had this happen occasionally when swapping keyboards. Usually, just repeatedly plugging/unplugging seems to wake things up. If that fails, a reboot generally cures it.

You may be on the brink of the USB power threshold when your external drive is connected. I get round these problems by connecting my USB keyboard to the PS/2 port via an adapter/connector. Same deal (sometimes) for the mouse. This frees up 2 USB ports for me. Obviously this wouldn't work for joysticks etc. but keyboards/mice should be OK.
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Postby Bazza » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:32 am

Must be something going on, mine died yesterday. Decided to sort out the tangle of leads behind the "box" by pulling them out and re-positioning them.
On restarting found that the keyboard wasn't functioning. It's an oldy, pre USB port. Checked that all the tiny pins are unbent but all seems ok. Lucky
enough to have another keyboard on hand (USB) which worked first go. Several reboot attempts on the old one failed so we'll put it down to old age. unsure.gif
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Postby gojozoom » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:40 am

Probably this USB Hub would solve your problem. Or if you need more USB power this one would be the best.
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Postby creator2003 » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:42 am

I have 2 usb harddrives plugged in and when i plug the flash in it loses one of the HD ,i think it is the power supply not being able to run them all ,what i think its power supply related ....
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Postby pilot.masman » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:04 pm

i suppose this is why i have 9 USB ports on my PC tongue.gif, if one goes just move on. i havent had one go though (im a poet). im not sure what to say, maybe ask on the ttrademe discussion board, there are a few helping PC people on there.
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Postby Adamski » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:37 pm

gojozoom wrote:
QUOTE (gojozoom @ Apr 29 2009, 09:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Probably this USB Hub would solve your problem. Or if you need more USB power this one would be the best.

A word of warning - I've tried UNpowered hubs (like in your first DSE link) and they made the problem worse - ie. they drained even more power. Powered ones should be OK in that situation though.
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Postby HardCorePawn » Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:39 pm

Yeah... things like keyboards and mice generally don't pull much current from the USB bus (ie. typical optical mouse is something 100mA)... however things like external harddrives do... hence the whole double plug where one is used for data and power and the other just draws power.

You may find that the power draw is too much with everything plugged in... in this instance, I would suggest a "powered" USB hub... this will then draw the necessary power from the mains, lightening the 'power' load on the USB bus on your mobo...
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Postby ardypilot » Sat May 02, 2009 6:06 pm

Hmm, well I left it alone for a few days, and just tried firing the comp up in normal USB configuration and the keyboard was still dead. Swapped over the joystick and keyboard ports, and now everything works fine.

I know I really need a new comp, but this will do for now. Time to go practice some NDB navigation!
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Postby pilot.masman » Sat May 02, 2009 10:42 pm

sounds like what creators going through tonight biggrin.gif
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Postby creator2003 » Mon May 04, 2009 10:41 pm

LOl yeah i nearly found a nice bit of concrete today to biff the keyboard at ,mine are wireless and after 4 restarts and alot of f that and bugger this/what tha etc it randomly came back to life ,i found as im working from bed lately when i moved my keyboard to the side to go outside for a smoke the keyboard was losing its connection thus cause all sorts of weird problems ..
fixed now but still what a day ive had ,it was design software yesterday ,today keyboard /2 days ago playing combat arms all stuffed up "really gutted "

Anyway hopefully no more problems for us all pirate.gif
Last edited by creator2003 on Mon May 04, 2009 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby ardypilot » Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:33 pm

Bugger, after firing up the comp yesterday for the first time in ages, it all worked fine.

Downloaded the JustFlight Duchess on my laptop and was keen for another simming sesh today, but now the keyboard can't be detected during startup, and it won't even load the password entry screen for Windows XP- just hangs on the 'Windows is starting' screen... dry.gif
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Postby pilot.masman » Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:27 pm

haha, when ever i hear dead keyboard i think back to that sign that windows gives you. "No keyboard detected, press F3 to continue" lol, i think its time for me to upgrade my peripherals to smile.gif
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