I don't know what I did but it no longer beeps and it starts windows normally. I said 98? I meant xp (SP3). So you suspect the motherboard, huh? That might be the issue. My wife spilled wine into it about 3 months prior. I let it dry out and it worked after that until the keyboard stopped working a few months later. My questions are: if the keyboard isn't working why does the escape key work? Hmmmmmm... I can't get it to do the same thing it did when it was beeping On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 10:34 PM, Jim March <1.jim.march@gmail.com> wrote: > OK, obviously it's a hardware issue. You've done good getting to that > point. > > Here's the problem: laptop keyboards generally don't have any "brains" > on board. At all. The entire keyboard controller hardware set is on > the motherboard. So there's a strong chance it's the motherboard, but > not a certainty. > > If it was mine, I'd do the following: > > 1) Go find instructions on how to pull the keyboard out on that > specific model, online. Google is your friend. So is a $20 set of > micro-sized screwdriver bits at Radio Shack that will let you take > apart more or less any type of laptop screw, from Torx to Phillips to > regular: > > http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3932539 > > EVERY geek needs this. You can take apart all kinds of little > gadgets, not just laptops. External hard drives, MP3 players (like a > Sansa I used to use that would hard-lock once in a while, had to pull > the battery that was behind micro-screws...). > > 2) Pop the keyboard off. Do nothing else. NOTE: laptop keyboard > connectors are oddball inside. Basically, you'll have a flat "end" > that goes into a "slot" and then there'll be a thing that anchors it > called the "clip". Go REAL easy sliding the clip back and forth as > you can break one of the ends. The good news is, you can still make > it work even if it looks "broken" - this article with pics explains: > > > http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2009/11/17/fix-broken-keyboard-connector-on-laptop-motherboard/ > > 3) See if that changes the boot behavior. If it does, you may be in > luck - something is shorted out in the keyboard itself. In that case > used laptop keyboards for various models (even older ones) are often > available on Ebay for cheap - as little as $10-$15, sometimes up to > $25, $40 would be high on an older one (used "pulled working"). > > If everything is the same keyboard in or out, well hell, I would > suspect the motherboard and at that point, anything from the Win98 era > is just not worth dealing with :(. > > Jim > > On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 10:09 PM, Michael Havens wrote: > > > > ________________________________ > > I have a laptop (tohiba satellite m35x-s114) with windows 98 on it whose > > keyboard stopped working. I set it aside for about 4 months and then I > had > > the bright idea that it might be a windows problem so I fired the > computer > > up with mint12 (live) and it just started beeping at the very first > screen > > (before bios). So I restated it again pressing the esc key and it loaded > > from the cd-rom but the keyboard still doesn't work. So I did it again > ..... > > sometimes it will load the cd but sometimes I get the BIOS screen. (it > all > > depends on how long I hold the esc key down) > > I found that when I put a USB keyboard on it the computer will start.Will > > updating the BIOS help it? Or how do I fix the BIOS so it will initialize > > the keyboard? > > > > The BIOS screen says: > > > > > > EAL21 BIOS Version V2.00 > > CPU = Intel (R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.30GHz > > 247M System RAM Passed > > 1024K Cache SRAM Passed > > System BIOS shadowed > > Video BIOS shadowed > > Fixed Disk 0: > > ATAPI CD-ROM: > > Mouse initialized > > > > Then at the bottom of the screen it says to press f2 for setup and to > press > > f12 for boot device selection menu. > > And the incessant beeping stats again after a second or so or it boots > the > > cd-rom. > > Hmmmmmm.... Isn't the BIOS screen supposed to say 'Initializing > keyboard'? > > it seems the BIOS no longer initializes the keyboard. Does anyone know > if I > > can fix this? Or did this laptop go to the great bit-bucket in the sky? > > > > > > -- > > :-)~MIKE~(-: > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- :-)~MIKE~(-: