Stumped Here

[sgt fetterman]

I'm an computer enthusiasts and my son's girlfriends dad asked me to look at their old system. He had trouble with it with a viurs, but needed some data off of it that was important. So a friend of his at work took it home and fdisk/formated it and tryed to reinstall windows. this guy was ticked as he didn't want that done and lost his data {back ups? nope}

Anyhow, He would like me to see if I can bring it back up and get windows or even Linux installed and working.

Gateway 700S, 1.8 GHz P-4, 256MB, ram, 64MB nivida video agp. {not sure of what model} 80 gig Hdd, Fdd, 8x dvd rom, 24x dc rom, none burners.
He can not find the restore disks or anything, But gave me a retail XP home he just bought from newegg. I got the manual from gateway in pdf. It had XP home OEM installed when bought.

This is what happens:
She will boot and during post comes up with the keyboard not found error, after a few moments wait she gives the operating system not found error. Now I know my keyboards {PS/2 type} all work as I pulled them off our machines. the KB's flash the num,caps,scroll locks on post and the num lock stays on {like it does on all our machines} while it sits there saying no KB or OS found. There is not much in the bios to change. I can navigate around the bios with the KB, but she don't see it on post even tho like I mention all lights flash as normal during post.
Now at gateway in the FAQ's it is tells about this happing IF you lose it in windows during use, and the soultion was to reinstall the KB drivers form the OEM disk. but that was losing the KB with XP installed, not during post.
I never had this problem, usally ether it worked or not. bad KB or port or KB PS/2 plug was usally my trouble. Any suggesrtions?
Thanks.

[toyota]

You could try a linux livecd and see if that runs and finds your kb.

Other than that i cant think of something right now.

[Wimpinator]

First try a USB keyboard making sure that USB is turned on at boot then make sure that the hard drive detection is set to "auto" for all drives. If it boots then you can turn off the devices you don't need.

[sgt fetterman]

I thought of that too, but I'm not about to drop $30+ at staples just to see if it works or not. I don't own one as I have two KVM switches PS/2 flavor.
drives dection is set up right.
thanks

[jonan_]

Originally Posted by sgt fetterman

I thought of that too, but I'm not about to drop $30+ at staples just to see if it works or not. I don't own one as I have two KVM switches PS/2 flavor.
drives dection is set up right.
thanks

Get it from Walmart. They have a great return policy.

[Acreo Aeneas]

You can get a cheap USB keyboard from NewEgg shipped for around $8.

Did you check to make sure that the hard drive jumper settings is set correctly (jumper > master on a single hard drive).

Hmm, does the machine detect the hard drive at all? (On some older dell machines, it won't detect the hard drive but if you press F1 to continue it'll boot into Windows, simply b/c the old DELL bios is set to read the hard drive if it is set as a secondary (jumper) on one of the two IDE channels.)

As for the OS, you'll need to run the XP disk, reformat, then install XP all over again. I presume the last guy didn't do it correctly.

[msdz]

I also had my PS/2 ports go bad on my MB, I now have to use USB only for keyboard and mouse. No biggy for me.

The Wal-Mart idea is good, buy it, try it, if it works, tell your son's girlfriend's dad then return the KB for your money or get him to reimburse you.

Let us know how things are going with the KB and also if any other troubles installing XP.

[sgt fetterman]

yes it saw the Hdd. I borrowed a usb kb, I guess the mainboard is toast, it would, not see the usb one. I tryed one of my spare hdd's and same thing. oh well. her dad is comming tomorrow to pick it up. I'm going to see if he will let me have it. I know where I can get a 478 board dirt cheap.

thanks fellows

[v1g1lant3]

d

[Lorax74]

Originally Posted by v1g1lant3

d

Brilliant!