oh, woe is me...

my keyboard doesn't work. we have just had the reminants of 'danial' over here, which means we spent three days surrounded by sheet rain. everything was damp, so when the puter started cutting out we assumed it was beacause of that and turned it off. in addition we discovered that all the little holes in the case were clogged with dirt, so we cleaned it all with canned air. the weather soon dryed out, but when we reconnected everything the keyboard wont work.

i have an e-machine c2825
windows xp
2800+ AMD athlon xp processor
56k modem
dsl

the keyboard is the original one that came with the package. e-machines model KB-0108
the keyboard attatches to a PS-2 port driver.
there is no hardware that i can find relating to the keyboard. the keyboard is totally dead. (no little light or anything).we phoned e-machines. they were most unhelpful. there advice was to get a new computer.(after all, it is a whole TWO years old!!) after much pressing we were advised to download a new driver from 'msicomputer.com' . they said the driver we need is 'MS-6743' but we cant find it on that site. in addition to the keyboard failure, there is something odd going on with the i-pod. it wont charge and when plugged in to the usb flashes its little green light very fast. the usb ports appear to be working fine for the camera. my brother, who is visiting, says it maybe that both the keyboard and the i-pod are drawing power and maybe its the power supply within the puter that feeds these. also of course there is the possibility that this is some sort of virus? i am writing this from my daughters lap top. i dont know that this is hardware, software, or malware so feel free to shift this accordingly. aloha to you all.

 

Hi, laurieB.
Stupid question from me, but have you tried another keyboard?

How is the power input to the rest of your house?
No other devices giving problems? Fridge, TV, etc.?
Lots of rain, ex cyclones, or hurricanes, can cause funny power problems.
We get heavy rain here in the "Wet season", as well.

Bazza

 

i dont have another keyboard i can try.

everything cuts in and out sometimes during the storms. i usually turn the puter off if the weather is 'iffy'. there doesn't appear to be any residual problems from all that rain. and the wather is now beautiful. things dry out very quickly here. its not like we have lots of rain and humidity, just the occasional few days. (ps. there are no stupid questions when dealng with me. my answers might not be all that bright though, so bear with me. e-machines guy just couldn't get his head around the fact that we had no key board though. kept saying things like 'go to msconfig and type in...' 'restart and press f8....' would be funny if i wasnt so stressed!) aloha

 

Glad you still have your sense of humour, laurie.
Looks like a trip to town, for you, to a friendly PC store to beg, borrow or (last resort) buy another keyboard. Maybe just take the PC box with you, into town.
Any neighbours nearby that might have a suitable keyboard?
Bazza

 

town is 100 plus miles round trip. there are no PC stores, friendly or otherwise. only costco, radioshack, and k-mart. i got this at costco, which means it was probably already end-of-the-line merchandice. before i buy another keyboard, which wouldn't be out of the question, i need to know if that is what the problem is, and not the driver, or some other integral part. i dont even know if 'drivers' are software or hardware!! my puter recognises my printer/scanner/copier, and my camera, and the dsl thingy (which also uses a USB port), and the mouse (which, like the keyboard, uses a PS-2 port). so just not the keyboard and the i-pod. these might be two seperate problems of course. i dont even know how i expect the geeks to help me if i cant type in anything. i can have the use of my daughters laptop for the next couple of weeks, and then i dont know what. i cant afford a new puter, despite the fact thaat they have come down in price so. i paid $600 odd for mine and you can buy better now for half that (according to DELL anyway!!)

 

laurieB. You may have to do the trip to one of the stores and get them to plug in one of their keyboards and see what happens.
They are more likely to help if they think they might be able to sell you a new PC.

Use your feminine charm. Bazza

PS: try your keyboard in the mouse PS2 port. That may help settle the matter.
I don't think it matters which PS2 port you use.
They just label them that way to help beginners know where to plug their cables. Baz

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the radio shack has a store a bit nearer. hubby went and bought a new keyboard, but no go!!! so its not the keybard itself. i tried swapping the plugs round but neither worked in the other hole. i think it does matter as the only help under 'troubleshooting' in the manual tells you to make sure its in the right one. the new keyboard was only FIVE dollars, so at least i havn't wasted loads of money!! seeing as its not the actual keyboard perhaps this should now be in software??? thanks for your input baz, i appreciate your concern and help. people are telling me it must be the 'motherboard'. does that mean i only have to replace that bit? i tried system retore BTW, no difference. i am trying to purge all my files, so i can download them on disks. that way i can try a clean install. (all of which i think i can do with just the mouse??) more aloha

 

Hi, LaurieB

Just a thought - have you tried to use the on-screen "virtual" keyboard?
Since your mouse works, maybe the virtual keyboard will allow you to check further into the problem.

On XP it's under "Accessories" and then "Accessibility"

Or, maybe a usb keyboard, if the regular socket is messed up?

Good luck!

 

Try this, go to control panel, keyboard, hardware, properties, driver. see if driver is there, you can unintall driver and reboot, windows will pick it up and reinstall that driver. You also might hunt for a adapter to take your keyboard to usb. ed

 

thankyou both for that. as you can see it works. there is nothing under the hardware tab. what does that mean.? i will check out the adapter idea. aloha

 

laurieB. Glad you got it working without forking out lots of dollars.
Another victory to MG over PC. Bazza

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this is the list. i dont know which is for the keybord.

 

that is the list it gives for 'add new hardware'. the keyboard is plugged in, but the puter cant 'see' it. this is the list of 'installed hardware'.

 

and..........

 

hi guys. well i finally got to Kona and bought another new keyboard, this time with the usb port, and it WORKS, yippee. i still intend to do a clean install, to see if the other one comes back. or maybe now that i can type f8 or whatever, someone can tell me how to find the missing driver. my mouse is playing up as well. it keeps getting the shakes and wondering off the point. it might be separation anxiety, coz its friend the keyboard was gone, or maybe its 'acting out' because it hasn't been played with as much. what do you think? (i have taken the little ball out and cleaned it, but it only made a minimal difference). if i crash the puter and start over, are there steps i should take? the thing that worries me is all the various thousands of updates for the camera, printer, etc., as well as windows, or is it all more simple than i think?
many thanks to you all especially tim. if you had not told me a keyboard was available with a usb port, and that it wouldn't brake the bank, i would not have thought of it. it just goes to show that no advise is too simple. very much aloha.