keyboard failure

Hi all.

I am trying to install a dell gx280 and am getting the message keyboard failure. no boot device available.

The gx280 does not have any ps/2 sockets, so I bought 2 adaptors ps/2 to USB. one for the mouse and one for the keyboard. Both adaptors say mouse adaptor on the box. When the start button is pressed both the mouse (optical) and keyboard light up - the computer runs the dell page and then the message keyboard failure comes up. I can't press f1 etc so I'm stuck!!

The computer was sold to me as xp and drivers installed - how can I check?

thanks

 

Make sure the Ribbon cables on your HDDs are not backward, and also make sure they are plugged into the Main Board correctly.

 

Borrow a USB keyboard and see what happens.

 

That is what I have done. the keyboard failure is no more. It just says no boot device available. The guys I bought the computer from should have installed an operating system - how can I find out?

btw I now know you can't use a ps2 to usb adaptor for a keyboard - just a mouse. shame........................

 

Don't agree. It depends what ps2 port you plug it into, IMHO. Bazza

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Does the boot drive show up in the BIOS screen on start-up? Do you still get that message if you have a boot disk in your floppy or CD-ROM drive? If you can boot from one of the latter, can you access your hard drive?

There are several possible reasons for that error message. If your hard drive is dead or your BIOS can't access it, it won't matter whether there is an OS installed on it or not. If the hard drive is good but the partition on which the OS was installed is not marked active, the BIOS will not find the OS on the drive even if it's there.

Unexperiencedn00b has identified one possible reason why your BIOS can't see your drive. If that's the problem, Unexperiencedn00b's suggestion is worth checking unless you're sure that nobody has been messing with the hard drive connections since it last worked properly.

 

Wouldnt it be great if everything just.....worked? Keep us informed. Best of luck.