Old Windows XP Keyboard Failure

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TheShinx317

Reputable
Feb 20, 2014
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My parents own an extremely old Windows XP Machine, a Dell Dimension E310. There are a lot of pictures and other important things we need to get off of it. It's always had a weird habit of getting stuck on a Bios-looking screen when you first turned it on. All you would have to do it is strike F2 and it would turn on just fine. Recently, however, it now gets stuck on the same screen, only now it says "Keyboard Failure" and striking F2 does nothing, obviously do to the fact that it doesn't recognize the keyboard. I realize that this is an extremely old machine that should have been replaced years ago, but I still need to get important files off of it. What should I do? I have tried using multiple USB keyboards to no avail. It does have a PS2 port, but I don't own any PS2 keyboards. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
 
Solution
USAFRet
Obtain a suitable USB dock or cable
Take the hard drive out of the Dell
Start your PC or laptop
Connect that old drive via the above mentioned dock or cable
Retrieve what you need from it
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FALC0N

FALC0N

Splendid
Apr 5, 2010
3,881
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That would certainly work. But I suspect the OP lacks the prerequisite skill level to complete the task.

The USB keyboards are not working because BIOS of that era didn't support them natively. You would boot to the OS and the driver there would allow full functionality. But if you got stuck anywhere before the OS loaded, it could be a problem.

Assuming your issue is just a dead keyboard, you could pick up a USB to PS2 adaptor. Many keyboards come with the adaptor. Problem solved. However, there are other possible causes. For example, a dead ps2 port would cause similar symptoms. But I would start with the adaptor.

 
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