i haves recently been given an old computer and when I start it up I get a black screen detailing the memory and what i assume is some kind of status and at the bottom of the screen there are three options ,Esc, F1, F10
my problem is that the keyboard is not being registered,
in short:
i need the keyboard to get out of an error screen i experience on start up
keyboard is not being registered
i have tried with both keyboard port and usb keyboards
How old is the computer? Try opening it, taking out the battery, waiting a couple of minutes and putting it back in. Used to help back in the old days.
If it’s more than a few years old it probably won’t work with a USB keyboard until the operating system loads, so you can’t use it to get past startup errors or use the BIOS. But you say you’ve tried a non-USB keyboard as well (I’m assuming that’ll be PS2, unless it’s really old with a DIN keyboard plug). If it’s PS2, are you sure you plugged it into the keyboard port and not the mouse one? Newer computers have them colour coded green for mouse and purple for keyboard, but earlier ones are both black and you just have to check the markings.
Along similar lines to what Ivan suggested, it’s possible that the battery on the motherboard is flat. If that happens the computer forgets all its setup and won’t know what is in it (and the date and clock will reset to default). Some recover quite nicely from this on their own and auto-detect most stuff, but some older boards will struggle with detecting drives and stuff, so you may need to go into the BIOS and manually set it up (or at least manually run the “auto-detect” options). To get into the BIOS you need to tap a key while starting the computer up - often the Delete key, but sometimes F2, F10 or some other key depending on the board (it usually comes up in a message at the bottom). It’s possible the keyboard is working enough to get this far but then the whole machine is locking up because of some invalid BIOS settings, making you think the keyboard isn’t working, so if you can get into the BIOS before it locks up you may be able to diagnose things further.
Rob
i might try that thing with the battery
the computer is new enough to use a USB keyboard
the keyboard port is being used
the thing is is that i cant enter BIOS or autorecover because the keyboard isnt being registered
on the topic of computer troubles…
while editing hd videos, my computer randomly shuts down. i think it’s overheating, and sure enough…when i put a box fan on full blast next to the computer it doesn’t randomly shut down.
what the heck should i do about this? i bought some compressed air and got most of the dust out…but it’s still overheating.
it only recently started doing this. i’ve been editing hd videos for about 5 months now. first i was using quicktime to edit, and the last few days i was using it my comp started crashing…so i bought powerdirector assuming it was quicktime. powerdirector apparently overheats the computer even faster though. that’s when i tried putting the box fan next to the comp and it never shuts down. when using powerdirector, it will shut down anywhere from 15-30 minutes without the box fan next to it.
my comp doesn’t shut down, ever, browsing the internet.
the video card is a nvidia 9800 gtx, it should be able to easily handle this. i used to play oblivion which demands a lot…and it ran at like 40-50 fps at 1600x1200 res
i fear my comp has a limited time left.
we had a similar thing happen to our family computor, we just got a new powerbox( i dont know the techincal name)
The obvious, visible dust is unlikely to be causing your machine to shut down. However the heat sink underneath the CPU fan can often get quite clogged up with dust. You may have to remove the CPU fan to see the dust clearly. Clean the fan blades as well.
Check also for similar dust clogged fans on your video card.
Anything involving high CPU use will result in an overheating CPU under these conditions. Fortunately, they don’t seem to suffer permanent damage as a consequence.
Nao
The definition of stupidity has changed
If you are trying to fix a computer, doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result, works real well more often than not.
Take out the video card, then put it back in. If you are still sol, do it again. Still crap ?, buy a spray can of electronics cleaner (4 $) with one of those tiny red straws. Take out the vid card and the memory sticks and spray the slots.
If you have several memory sticks, use only one at first. Then if it works, add the others one at a time. Try it in different slots, I have had boards where one slot went bad. Still sol ? try a different memory stick, and repeat the above. Just don’t forget to keep trying the remove and replace video card ritual.
A bad contact between the vid card and the board causes 80 % of start up problems. Don’t feel stupid taking the card out and putting it back in and trying this again 5 x in a row. Most parts that are tossed really just had dirty contacts, and working the part in and out of the slot helps it get workable metal to metal contact. That said, I have had memory sticks and vid cards go bad, my point is keep plugging away a while before you condemn the part.
I live in the tropics, buy a low end cpu and overclock the piss out of it while playing games. To avoid overheating I put on a top rated cooler and it runs cool now. Naomi’s advice about the need to take fans off and clean dust out of the cpu cooler and the vid card is essential. I go one step further, and remove the heat sink, wash it in the sink, and reinstall it using Arctic silver thermal paste.
I don’t advise novices to unplug CPUs or to remove heat sinks. Some people are a little heavy handed, CPU pins damage easily in those circumstances, and it can be somewhat fiddly getting the heat sink re-attached.
I can’t say that, in the past when I was professionally repairing a LOT of PCs/Servers that I had any significant contact problems. Never cured a fail myself by the repeated plug/unplug of a card. But maybe in the tropics FTL is seeing that happen due to different climatic conditions. All the PCs I worked with were in air conditioned buildings.
I found that memory sticks rarely fail, and CPUs are quite tough in terms of heat tolerance. They usually keel over when too hot, but recover once allowed to cool off again. I only ever blew one up by overclocking it…and as luck would have it, that was in my own PC. 
The video screen suddenly froze. CPU had died. Allowing it to cool off did nothing to help.
Oh, and check the fan in the Power Supply is rotating, or else the inside of the case can get hot enough to roast chickens. That fan is intended mainly to cool the case contents, rather than the PSU itself.
Nao
FTL does raise an important issue though - that this could be RAM-related. If one of your sticks of RAM has gone bad, perhaps it would be causing random crashes with memory intensive stuff like video editing, but not with normal web browsing. Just a though.
My bet would be heat / dust though…
You still have pins on your CPUs? 
no but really don’t take CPUs apart, especially all Atom CPUs are soldered onto the motherboard now.
@dan_de_man - Do you have the motherboard brand and model? I think you should try clearing the CMOS. Usually it’s a little jumper, you need to take it off and put it in the clear position for a minute or so computer unpowered, and then put it back and boot (usually taking the battery out for a while does the same thing, but it’s nicer and cleaner with the jumper). That will clear all BIOS settings. After that see if you can get in. Otherwise try different USB ports, there should be USB ports on the motherboard itself that you can use with a jumper lead.
For your 9800GTX, i’d say it’s probably heat, or drivers. Try cleaning it, and updating to the newest drivers. If you have a spare graphics card try and see if that makes any difference. Run memtest86 for one night (download it as an ISO or a USB stick image, or grab any linux boot cd - it’s usually on there). You need to run if for a night to make multiple passes (something like 5 just to be sure).
If you are worried about contacts, take the card out, clean it with some alcohol , dry it and put it back in.
A lot of good advice here
I forgot to mention always plug your box into a surge protector strip with a switch. Turn the switch off when you plug parts in and out. The “soft off”, as in the box is off but still plugged into a live socket, may fry parts.
I think taking the heat sink off, removing the fan and washing it in the sink once a year is a must where I live. All the cpu sockets from the last 8 years or so have “zero insertion force sockets”. There is a lever at the side of the socket, move it up and the socket releases its grasp of the cpu pins. The cpu is then lifted up as you would a half dollar off a table. The new upgrade cpu drops in by gravity and then you turn the lever down. I would rate swapping out the cpu of these more modern sockets very easy, but unlikely to fix your box. I last fried a cpu of the old generations, that lacked thermal shut down protections, long ago.
Memory sticks go bad a lot down here (maybe 20% lifetime failure rate), cpu’s almost never, so trying a new cpu in a modernish board as a fix is a last resort. It is more likely the motherboard itself is bad, or the power supply.
I last bought a new computer in 98. It has an atx case, the only part to remain. Sometimes I replace a part to fix it, but mostly because I want to hop it up. Every part in it has been replaced many times, all that’s left is the case.
So just buy a nice big case with a quality power supply. Then buy cool new parts until you’ve got something running that you like. I’m cheap and buy parts a good distance back from the expensive cutting edge, then replace the part 2 years later with a new zoot bottom feeder find. Speed is fun.
To the OP, I would suggest examining your mother board carefully for brand and model #. If you can tell me that, I can tell you if it’s worth bothering with at all. The capacitors in electronics tend to dry out after 5-10 years. They really don’t expect people to care by then. So getting a nice case and power supply, then following a build guide that matches your budget (found on computer web sites), to help you pick parts, is as cheap and much better speed wise than throwing money at long toothed dinosaurs.
Remember, you don’t need to understand how a box works to build one. All you need to know is what parts to buy. How they plug together isn’t very complex, and there are many web guides to help you.
oks guys new discovery
it gives a series of long beeps of equal lengths on boot and while in the afermentioned screen
Beeping sounds like memory. Try take the memory out, clean the contacts with alcohol. If there are multiple sticks, try putting only 1 or 2 in at a time.
Once it stops beeping do a memtest86. Just shove a CD in and it should boot to it if you disconnect all the drives. If you find a stick of memory that always makes the PC beep just bin it.
ok sweet thanks for the advice
You need to find out what mother board you have. Then go to the their web site and download the free manual. That will tell you what the beeps mean. Different boards have different bios chips, Award, Ambious etc. , and they have different beep meanings.
On the bright side, it is likely that your ps is ok.
I would be careful about cleaning the memory sticks with alcohol. Alcohol is known to impair memory, although I don’t remember how. If you get a tiny speck of lint on it, then that gets in the slot, it can block a contact and ruin that slot.
You really should buy a can of this stuff. Dirt in the slots is more troublesome generally that dirt on the sticks.
