[narlus]

for some reason my basic Dell-branded keyboard (PS/2 port i believe) just stopped working. i tried the obvious unplug/plug back in, but nothing. no lights on the keyboard (caps lock, etc). should i junk it and buy another? or is there a way to possibly bring it back from the dead?

 

[Tenchiro]

Did you plug it into the mouse port? The caps/num/scroll lock lights should still work though.

Could be a few things, reinstall the drivers first. If that doesn't work try another keyboard. If that fails, your mobo may have a dead port, get a USB keyboard.

EDIT -- Go into the Device Manager, remove the KB drivers and reboot. Windows should be able to reinstall them itself.

 

[binary visions]

for some reason my basic Dell-branded keyboard (PS/2 port i believe) just stopped working. i tried the obvious unplug/plug back in, but nothing. no lights on the keyboard (caps lock, etc). should i junk it and buy another? or is there a way to possibly bring it back from the dead?

It's either a dead keyboard or a dead port. When you boot the computer, do the caps lock/num lock etc lights flash? If not, and if you can't hit delete for the BIOS, then reinstalling drivers won't help.

Swap keyboards if you have a spare, and see if your port is dead. If you don't have a spare, just buy a USB keyboard. It'll come with a USB-to-PS2 converter that will allow you to test the PS2 port and see if it's dead, and if it's dead you can just use the USB port, or take it up with your motherboard manufacturer.