Pc won't boot unless kbd+mouse r disconnected

[tecknowledgist]

Hello,

So,

I knocked my tower over when I was reformatting it and now it won't boot. I'm not sure what my BIOS is because it won't get that far anymore but I can tell you this: on powerup, the keyboard lights up, the screen has a Dell bootup screen and the CD-ROM drive and hard drive will start turning. I get two short beeps and no boot. When I remove the USB mouse and PS/2 keyboard I get the normal 1 beep and it boots. In fact if I boot using KNOPPIX, and I plug the kbd and mouse back in as it's booting, then I can use them just fine.

I've taken out the RAM and put it back in but I don't know what else I should do or check. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'll gladly tongue their earlobe.

 

[merlinbadman]

lol ewww,

Try reseting the CMOS. Does your mobo have a jumper that you can remove to disconnect the battery? or simply remove the battery for a couple of minutes, then replace.

This will return your BIOS to factory settings.

 

[gamerk316]

More than 1 beep generally indicated an error of some sort at boot time...something seems to be causing an error at boot.

 

[tecknowledgist]

I could try reseating the video card. I haven't done this yet. I should mention that I am getting a Dell screen right after hitting the power button so I assume this means the video card is making a connection and functioning.

I pulled out the CMOS battery and put it back in, and it didn't change anything.

I feel like there's something significant about the fact that it boots fine with the mouse and keyboard unplugged, but doesn't boot with them plugged in.

 

[bonanzaguy]

Have you tried plugging in only the mouse with no keyboard and vise versa?

 

[tecknowledgist]

I have. The mouse is USB and the keyboard is PS/2. If either one is plugged in I get the same problem -- 2 short beeps and no boot. If they're both unplugged I get the normal one beep and it boots.

 

[tecknowledgist]

Anyone? I would have thought the keyboard/mouse thing would have narrowed this down.

 

[tecknowledgist]

OK here's the solution, in case anyone else has a problem: I changed the configuration jumper so my bios was in maintenance mode. Then I set the BIOS to show the diagnostic screen on boot. Then right when the beep happened an error showed saying that it couldn't find the A drive (this is an old computer). I had recently unplugged the floppy drive since I haven't used a floppy in years.

In the future I'll be more specific about make and model, year etc.

 

[123urpked]

I really don't know if this would have to do anything with it, but maybe you should try updating drivers on all your hardware?

 

[tecknowledgist]

Thanks, I solved the problem.