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I have two questions:

  1. How is it that my front USB panel will not accept keyboard in BIOS, but the rear does?

  2. When the error says: Keyboard Failure, press F1 to continue... how are you supposed to continue if the keyboard doesn't work? Is this just a failure on the BIOS maker's part?

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Re 1) Does the front USB panel accept anything else? Does it use a different chip? It is USB3 rather than the normal USB? re 2)It does that because it used to be a standard way. Nobody ever said it was a smart standard. – Hennes Jan 15 at 0:47
Ad 2) You're supposed to connect a working keyboard, then press F1. There was a time when you couldn't properly shut down a computer without a working keyboard. – Dennis Jan 15 at 3:14
Maybe the ports on the front panel haven't been connected to the motherboard. – dangph Jan 15 at 3:26
the front ports are located on a separate chip that is connected to the motherboard. What is weird is that I can boot off it using usb, but keyboards dont get recognized – agz Jan 15 at 4:15

1 Answer

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My understanding of the "Press F1" message is that because the keyboard is such a vital peripheral, there was no point in continuing to boot unless you fixed your keyboard and proved it by hitting F1.

Since headless (and keyboardless) servers are common now (not to mention tablets) many, if not all, modern BIOSes have an option in (usually) advanced startup that allows you to specify if the POST routine should stop on a hardware error. The options are usually "Yes", "Yes except keyboard", and "No".

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