keyboard failure

[jokawild69]

hello
my friend's desktop has been on the fritz lately and i've been trying to figure the problem out. its a dell inspirion 530 and whenever we cut it on it goes straight to a black screen and says "keyboard failure". we've tried the keyboard on a different computer and it works fine, on top of that even if they keyboard was broken the computer should still boot up either way.
if anyone can help me with this that would be awesome.

thanx

 

[carnageX]

Is it being plugged into a USB or PS/2 (the round, purple port)? Try a differetn keyboard on the PC being affected, and/or try a different port. I.e. if the current keyboard is a USB one, try a different port or try a PS/2 keyboard, if the computer has a PS/2 port (I know some newer dells don't have one).

 

[jokawild69]

it doesn't have a ps/2 port however we did hook up a brand new keyboard to it and it still says "keyboard failure"
i've also tried different usb ports as well

 

[carnageX]

Have you tried clearing the CMOS? Are you able to get into the BIOS at all before the keyboard error comes up? If you can, try to look in there to see if there's something related to hault on keyboard error and disable it.

 

[jokawild69]

i couldn't get into it.
im sorry but i left a part out. it started acting weird after a storm had come into the area. she said it was plugged up and said that lightning struck the house. her house is fine so im guessing a power surge happened.

 

[MindoverMaster]

That could be the board that is fried, not her KB.

 

[jokawild69]

i figured that something was fried but i was really hoping it wasn't and that it was something fixable

 

[carnageX]

Did you try resetting the CMOS? If it still does it then, then I 'd say the board is toast.

 

[jokawild69]

Did you try resetting the CMOS? If it still does it then, then I 'd say the board is toast.

i have no idea how ot reset the cmos

 

[carnageX]

Unplug the computer, press the power button a few times to clear out any extra juice, then remove the silver coin battery on the motherboard for about 10 seconds or so. Put it back in, plug the computer back in, and turn it on.