Gateway Log-in mystery

wheels of ire

Yes it's Wheels back with another dumb question, but this problem has baffled a small army of techies, Whilst having the power pack problem, I switched to my old (2001) IGhzGateway,which I have on a LAN, and used a back-up.
My smugness dissipated rapidly when I fired it up. It starts up normally enough, but just as it asks me to enter my password in XP, it turns the keyboard off. I have tried 5 different keyboards, as well as everything else that I can think of.
That this should have baffled me isn't surprising, but it also has techies I know stumped.
If you are out there Blub, I could use a call!
All ideas welcome
Thanks to all.

Thorbar

Have you tried a USB keyboard? There might be something wrong with the ps/2 port for the keyboard.

wheels of ire

Thorbar wrote:

Have you tried a USB keyboard? There might be something wrong with the ps/2 port for the keyboard.

Thanks for the reply. I don't have a USB key board, but if what you say is true, why would keyboard commandswork when I go into BIOS ?

The Muppet

Could be a virus of corrupted OS did you try a repair from the xp CD.

Will it work in safe mode? (hold down the f8 key when booting)

wheels of ire

The Muppet wrote:

Could be a virus of corrupted OS did you try a repair from the xp CD.

Will it work in safe mode? (hold down the f8 key when booting)

Nope, I wasn't aware of having to do that, thinking that F8, alone, would do it.I won't be able to come back to you on this for a couple of days,as I need a nimbler person to do the discoonecting and reattaching of cables, etc, and one isn't immediatly to hand.(I'm disabled)
And no, I haven't. I still have no idea where the safe place I put tthe damn thing , and can't search for it.
But thanks for trying to help.Suspect I might have accidentally altered BIOS settings, but went back and set them all to fail-safe, and no joy.
Prob is Pc quits recognising keyboard at point I'm asked to put in password.Just dies-how else would have got that far with dead ports . Thanks for trying to help. Much appreciated.

[Preacher]

Sounds like a virus to me.

</2 cents>

Virus_Inc

if you have remote desktop enabled you can connect to it over your lan with a terminal client (like xp remote desktop connection)

ZENER

OK *****stoopid questions alert !!!!*****

You mention you are disabled:

Have you any special needs with regards to keyboard usage ?
Have you any of the accessibilty features enabled in windows ?
Do you use a virtual on-screen keyboard ?

Also how do you know the keyboard dies just at that point ?

ZEN

wheels of ire

ZENER wrote:

OK *****stoopid questions alert !!!!*****

You mention you are disabled:

Have you any special needs with regards to keyboard usage ?
Have you any of the accessibilty features enabled in windows ?
Do you use a virtual on-screen keyboard ?

Also how do you know the keyboard dies just at that point ?

ZEN

Thanks, Zen..
I do have some difficulties, as my condition is a peripheral neoropathy , which has a kind of techie ring to it, doesn't it?
It means that my brain doesn't know where my various bits are, unless directly informed by my eyes. In theory I ought to be the perfect Christian, as quite literally my left hand does not know what my right hand is doing!
A greatly diminished sense of touch is part of it. and I have tried various keyboards, from compact through different full sized ones.
this is being typed on a Medion wireless one, and although typing is slow, it helps me get back some flexibiliity into my fingers.
I do use some of the accessibloity stuff in Windows, sticky keys, slowed down cursor and so on
I don't use a virtual one.
How do I know that my keyboard dies just as the enter password screen appears? Well, apart from the fact that none of the 5 have been let enter my password, some of them flash all their LEDs, utter a little sigh, and expire.
Ok maybe I'm doing the sighing, but rest is true.Happy to talk of this in PM, if you want, accessiibliity, I mean.
Thanks again for thought.