Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse Not Responding

System Information: Gateway E2100 (?) running XP Pro.

Background: DH decided to change out the outlet that the power strip was plugged into. Prior to turning the breaker off for that plug, I powered down the computer; however, in retrospect, I don't know whether the process of powering down was completed by the PC.

DH finishes installing new outlet, flips the breaker, everything powered up (lights flashing) and then the breaker flipped off. DH flips it back on and it appears that everything (monitor, tower, printer, etc) is powering back on. I can hear the tower trying to cycle on, the power light is flashing on my monitor off and on, and the keyboard and mouse show no power. I tried turning the tower off for 30 minutes, but the same problems occur once the tower is powered on. I'm at a loss, but thought I would try here before calling someone in to take a look at it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Laurie

 

If power was lost during the reboot, the CMOS and/or BIOS could have become corrupted.
To reset the CMOS/BIOS to the factory settings:
1. Unplug computer
2. remove the CMOS battery; leave it out of the computer for 15 minutes and then replace it.
http://support.gateway.com/s/Manuals/Desktops/9525328.pdf
(Page 149)
3. Reconnect the computer and reboot.
4. While your computer is restarting, press and hold the F1 key. The main menu of the BIOS Setup utility opens.
5. press F9 to reset the factory default BIOS
6. press F10 to save and exit

Hopefully everything will be back to normal

 

Thanks so much. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Laurie

 

No luck! I removed the battery as instructed and got the same results when I put in back in. My monitor led is still flashing off and on. One thing I noticed (if it helps) is that the Floppy Disk drive light comes on when the computer sounds like it is trying to boot up, then goes off for a few seconds until the computer starts trying to boot up again. I'm guessing that the mouse and keyboard lack of response (i.e. no power led) is because the PC is not getting far enough into the boot process to start them up?????

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Laurie

 

Did you unplug the mouse keyboard or monitor? (stupid question but sometimes we overlook the obvious.)

 

Yep, I did check to make sure I plugged everything back in. It would not have surprised me though if I had overlooked the obvious!

Thanks anyway.

Laurie

 

Do you have a XP Pro install disk?
If so you can try booting to it and doing a repair install, but I doubt this work.
You say that you don't even get a BIOS screen so it probably isn't progressing to the point of loading the OS.


I see on your computer you have a floppy drive.
If you refer to page 154 of the manual I linked to in my previous post, it walks you through replacing the BIOS.
Until you get the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) running there is little else you can do.

 

I have a CD-Rom drive and a floppy drive (if that matters). I don't have the XP CD either.

That page talks about writing down any custom BIOS settings. Since I can't get my monitor to work, I'm guessing I skip that step and just create the the diskette with the new BIOS settings?

Also in the steps it lists creating a bootable diskette and then the next step is creating the new BIOS diskette. How do I create a bootable diskette if nothing is working on that computer?

Thanks again for your help!

 

I've read through all the documentation I can find on replacing the BIOS on your computer and see no way to accomplish it.
It all assumes that you have a working BIOS that simply needs updating.
I'm a little out of my league here, so the only suggestion I can offer is to look once again at your motherboard and see if there is a series of pins next to the CMOS battery. (labeled CMOS Reset or something similar)
There should be 3 pins with a jumper on 2 of them.
making sure that the computer is unplugged, remove the jumper and place it on the other 2 pins.
Leave it there a moment or two and then put it back to its original position.
This should reset the CMOS and (hopefully) allow you to get you BIOS back.

If this doesn't help, perhaps someone else here will jump in and offer to help you.

 

Thanks again for all of your help. I took it in to a local shop and when he opened it up he said that I "blew a cap" and that the motherboard was basically shot. <sigh>

Thanks, Joelz. I truly do appreciate your patience on this one.

Laurie

 

My keyboard and monitor not responding

 

My keyboard and monitor not responding, please can u solve my prblem ?