# Keyboard not working during boot



## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

Hi all,

I have windows 7 installed on a ssd, and the boot time is quick! however Im wondering if its too quick, as the lights on the keyboard dont come on until im into windows, so I cant access the bios, I bought a cheap keyboard to make sure my ms sidewinder x4 wasnt broke.

Any suggestions?


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

have you tried pushing F1, F2, or F10. Delete, Esc in continuous strokes right after hitting the power button on the computer?

Have you tried moving the keyboard to a different port on the motherboard?

Once you get into the BIOS/CMOS/UEFI

Set a Delay of 5 seconds For the motherboard POST/Splash Screen. I had to do that to my bros machine because it booted too fast


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## Jetster (Aug 27, 2012)

tap quicker  lol  

Just unplug your hard drive and it will give you a option.      <<


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

The system is not recognising any usb devices. every now and again my cpu fan drops below 600rpm so I get a "cpu fan error" message, I could get into the bios from here, but on this screen it says there is no mouse or keyboard connected, they are only recognised once into the os?

Did a bios update recently but was able to get to the bios after that.


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

If you have a USB keyboard, there is a good chance that your bios is not set to recognize USB  / USB legacy devices straight from boot.

Some motherboards DON'T recognize USB keyboards by default unless told to.

Take a look a the back of your PC , if your board also has an older PS/2 keyboard connector - try and borrow one from somewhere and plug it in - there is a good chance that the PS/2 keyboard will be able to get you into your BIOS where you can enable USB keyboard recognition.


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

BazookaJoe said:


> If you have a USB keyboard, there is a good chance that your bios is not set to recognize USB  / USB legacy devices straight from boot.
> 
> Some motherboards DON'T recognize USB keyboards by default unless told to.
> 
> Take a look a the back of your PC , if your board also has an older PS/2 keyboard connector - try and borrow one from somewhere and plug it in - there is a good chance that the PS/2 keyboard will be able to get you into your BIOS where you can enable USB keyboard recognition.



The sabertooth doesnt have any legacy ports


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

My only other thought then is , is it a wireless USB ? because some of those (even a few Microsoft branded ones  I have used) don't work at all before windows loads as the USB dongle is semi software emulated.

Other than that I have no idea.

EDIT : Looks like a combo legacy connector to me ... :3

I also have an ASUS board and I know mine defaults to DISABLED USB keyboard at boot if I default it.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

ya that board has no PS2 ports on it, shameful on asus


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

Its a microsoft wired x4, 

Have been debating wether or not to flash bios again and see if that refreshes the settings, must have knocked the wrong settings on when optimising boot settings.


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

BazookaJoe said:


> EDIT : Looks like a combo legacy connector to me ... :3



Thats the P67...... I have Z77


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

Jetster said:


> Just unplug your hard drive and it will give you a option



LOL well if it IS a disabled USB keyboard setting then this still wont help  - but I like how you think


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

barlowLAD said:


> Its a microsoft wired x4,
> 
> Have been debating wether or not to flash bios again and see if that refreshes the settings, must have knocked the wrong settings on when optimising boot settings.



... mmm possible ...


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

I dont really like flashing boards though, had a bad experience so this seems like quite a trivial thing to block the board up for


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

Perhaps there might be a way to get in via the Management Engine Interface in windows?

I'll be honest I deal mostly with office type systems apart from my own machine, so I've not yet played with this board, but these new BIOS occasionally have some kind of windows interface - might help? 

See Management Engine Interface under Utilities? 

http://za.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/#download


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## Crap Daddy (Aug 27, 2012)

Is the USB keyboard connected to the USB 3.0 port? Try to connect tor USB2.0


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> Is the USB keyboard connected to the USB 3.0 port? Try to connect tor USB2.0



I had trouble getting into my Bros AsRock 970 Pro after the first boot, thats how fast it was booting, thats when i set a 5 second boot for the splash screen


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> Is the USB keyboard connected to the USB 3.0 port? Try to connect tor USB2.0



*As a general reply to anyone reading this thread*  - this is also very good advice - plugging your keyboard or mouse into a USB3 port can make it unavailable to many early USB3 adopting motherboard BOIS'es but beyond that it is a *TOTAL WASTE of a USB3 port*.

USB3 ports deliver higher than average power and FAR greater data speeds than previous ports and the idea here really is for connecting data devices, such as flash drives, printer/scanners, external storage, or disc reader/writers, and so on.

The data and power required by most mice and keyboards can be HUNDREDS of times less than what a USB3 Port provides, and using one up for a keyboard its a total waste of resource, apart from also causing potential complications outside of the OS.

If you have USB3 port's they are usually identifiable by their blue coloring.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

Id say signal issues occur because of the extra pins in USB 3.0



BazookaJoe said:


> *As a general reply to anyone reading this thread*  - this is also very good advice - plugging your keyboard or mouse into a USB3 port can make it unavailable to many early USB3 adopting motherboard BOIS'es but beyond that it is a *TOTAL WASTE of a USB3 port*.
> 
> USB3 ports deliver higher than average power and FAR greater data speeds than previous ports and the idea here really is for connecting data devices, such as flash drives, printer/scanners, external storage, or disc reader/writers, and so on.
> 
> ...


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

BazookaJoe said:


> *As a general reply to anyone reading this thread*  - this is also very good advice - plugging your keyboard or mouse into a USB3 port can make it unavailable to many early USB3 adopting motherboard BOIS'es but beyond that it is a *TOTAL WASTE of a USB3 port*.
> 
> USB3 ports deliver higher than average power and FAR greater data speeds than previous ports and the idea here really is for connecting data devices, such as flash drives, printer/scanners, external storage, or disc reader/writers, and so on.
> 
> ...



I had originally thought this was to be the case, but I have tried all usb ports on the system, including front panel(something stupid like 13!) to no avail


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

only other thing i can recommend is to CLEAR CMOS at this point


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## Jetster (Aug 27, 2012)

Sometime I have had problem with new systems using USB to get into the bios. Thats why i keep a PS2 keyboard around. After a couple of boots it seam to go away and is fine.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

Jetster said:


> Sometime I have had problem with new systems using USB to get into the bios. Thats why i keep a PS2 keyboard around. After a couple of boots it seam to go away and is fine.



Dude The board he has does not have any PS2 ports on it, when a PS2 keyboard has a USB adapter used the signalling is that of USB


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## mauriek (Aug 27, 2012)

i have exactly the same problem, it only refuse to function on 2 gaming keyboards brand other keyboard works fine, trying everything without success and finally contact MSI (my board manufacturer) and they told me it is a BIOS compatibility problem and they send me new bios that supposed to fix the problem but unfortunately the new bios still didn't work on 1 of the keyboard, report back the result to MSI and i still didn't receive any answer from them.


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## barlowLAD (Aug 27, 2012)

mauriek said:


> i have exactly the same problem, it only refuse to function on 2 gaming keyboards brand other keyboard works fine, trying everything without success and finally contact MSI (my board manufacturer) and they told me it is a BIOS compatibility problem and they send me new bios that supposed to fix the problem but unfortunately the new bios still didn't work on 1 of the keyboard report back the result to MSI and i still didn't receive any answer from them.



Unfortunatley I have tried several keyboard brands and none work, I think you maybe onto something with bios issues, As I have recently flashed the bios, but it worked after the upgrade, then has suddenly stopped working.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 27, 2012)

barlowLAD said:


> Unfortunatley I have tried several keyboard brands and none work, I think you maybe onto something with bios issues, As I have recently flashed the bios, but it worked after the upgrade, then has suddenly stopped working.



if you can, Id recommend a BIOS/CMOS Reset via the jumper on the board. If in event that doesnt work, either Return the board for an AsRock or other company or RMA it to Asus.


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 27, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Id say signal issues occur because of the extra pins in USB 3.0





eidairaman1 said:


> if you can, Id recommend a BIOS/CMOS Reset via the jumper on the board. If in event that doesn't work, either Return the board for an AsRock or other company or RMA it to Asus.



2 Problems here :

First of all The USB 3 issue has, in fact, *nothing at all to do with "pins"* and everything to do with the fact that on some early adopter boards the USB3 component was not integrated into the actual core controllers of the motherboard meaning it functioned as an entirely separate device that will only run in windows(or whatever OS), once a proper device driver had been loaded. By intentional design USB3 & USB2 pin layouts are designed to be backwards compatible - as is a very well known fact.

And secondly there is a very good chance that there is nothing WRONG with the board, as it works fine in windows - again once the appropriate drivers are loaded - almost two sides of the same "problem coin" really. the suggestion to "_Return the board for an AsRock or other company_" seems quite ill considered actually, and no offense intended, but in my own limited personal opinion,  bordering on the willfully stupid, and somewhat counter-constructive.



barlowLAD said:


> As I have recently flashed the bios, but it worked after the upgrade, then has suddenly stopped working.



Based on this, and everything else you have tried,  I would say its time to re-flash the BIOS :/ - I am currently using an ASUS on my own gaming machine, all be it an older model, and I have found the windows bios backup and flash tools to be reasonably reliable - If it where my board, I'd do a BIOS backup and then just re-upload the latest BIOS image from the official website (yes I know you already know that, I'm just spelling it all out for anyone else who may find this thread one day 

Hope you come right


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## barlowLAD (Aug 30, 2012)

Just thought I would drop an update.....................................

FIXED   

Did the bios flash with the usb port on the back (EZ Flash) and got into the bios, it seems to default to "partial usb" on boot, which adds up as I only got into the bios once after flashing it last time......

For anyone who stumbles across this in the future, it was the 1503 version of the bios, so when you first get into the bios after the flash, check your boot settings


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## BazookaJoe (Aug 30, 2012)

barlowLAD said:


> FIXED  ... Did the bios flash ... it seems to default to "partial usb" on boot ... For anyone who stumbles across this in the future, it was the 1503 version of the bios



That's great news 

And thanks for the followup and version info - It's great to resolve a fault, and its even better to leave a lasting solution trail for those poor lost souls who may google up this thread 2 years from now


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## D007 (Aug 30, 2012)

barlowLAD said:


> I dont really like flashing boards though, had a bad experience so this seems like quite a trivial thing to block the board up for



I hear ya, it can make a person nervious for sure.. Now a days though it is really hard to mess up a flash. Some mobos even have contingencies in place in case you do. That is becoming more and more common. I mean flashing it during a lighting storm might not be such a great idea but it's really easy and fast.. Not like how it use to be with floppys and stuff..

EDIT: aaannd now I see you fixed it.. Congratulations.


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## barlowLAD (Aug 30, 2012)

D007 said:


> I hear ya, it can make a person nervious for sure.. Now a days though it is really hard to mess up a flash. Some mobos even have contingencies in place in case you do. That is becoming more and more common. I mean flashing it during a lighting storm might not be such a great idea but it's really easy and fast.. Not like how it use to be with floppys and stuff..
> 
> EDIT: aaannd now I see you fixed it.. Congratulations.



Yeah, I think this board has a dual bios anyway, but with the EZ Flash utility its a doddle. just pop a flash drive into the correct port, hold down the bios button, It took about 90 seconds.

Hats off to ASUS


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