Replaced hard drive now keyboard doesnt work

John Frustrated

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Jul 21, 2010
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Hello,

I have an 8 yr old Compaq Presario with a hard disk that's been making noises for years. Finally, it crashed, and I could not get the PC out of a continuous restart mode.

Using guidance from both my ongoing CompTIA training and Mark Minasi's book, I bought and installed a new compatible HDD.

When I start the PC to partition the HDD and it goes to command prompt, it won't recognize my keyboard (USB plug). II can't give it any commqands. 'm hoping the motherboard is not shot as well. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 

bambino33

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Feb 22, 2008
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I know sometimes when I had real old pc's that I needed to use a converter to fit the mouse port especially after I reinstalled the operating system as all the drivers aren't up to snuff from windows updates, you may have your old mouse, try that.
 
bambino is correct. 8 years ago, manufacturers were leaving the USB driver recognition to be handled by Windows. Basically the problem you're having is that the motherboard doesn't have integrated USB support. If you use a USB to PS/2 adapter you should be fine.
 

John Frustrated

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Jul 21, 2010
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Hello again:

I bought the adapter to convert the USB to PS/2 plug on my keyboard cord, but that didn't help, unfortunately. Any more suggestions? Yikes. I even replaced the CMOS battery, for fun. No help.

Suggestions would be appreciated, thanks
 
Does your keyboard have any LED?

For example to indicate that the Caps Lock is on. If there are, check to see that the LEDs light up when the computer is powered on. If the LEDs don't light up, you could have a problem with the mobo.