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I have a weird problem. Some months ago all ports of my PC were damaged. So literally no port is working (USB, Audio, Serial, Keyboard/Mouse, only VGA is working) I went to a repair shop and the guy installed a PCI USB card. So I am again on all ports with USB mode.

Here is the problem, since the port is not a normal USB port, so the keyboard is not ready on boot, keyboard only works from login screen in Win 7 and onwards.

Is there any solution for me to go to boot menu or make the keyboard work in current circumstances?

May be a windows based BIOS menu or something that forces me to go BIOS.

I have Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen), DH61CR.

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  • Do you get a message on boot saying "keyboard failure"? What keyboard are you using? Have you disconnected all other USB devices except the keyboard? I would guess that the USB card is somewhat incompatible with your keyboard model, at least as concerning the very basic BIOS driver. Once Windows boots up, it uses its own driver which is more evolved.
    – harrymc
    Sep 21, 2016 at 16:54

3 Answers 3

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Have you considered going in to the case (I'm assuming this is a desktop since you said a PCI card got installed) and unplugging the hard drive? From there, the next-in-line device in your boot order (usually an optical drive) will attempt to boot since the hard drive is no longer visible. Assuming you have a Windows DVD (or a recovery disk if this is a pre-fab computer), it should boot far enough to allow recognition of the PCI card and hence, the USB devices.

Alternatively, if you're comfortable doing it, you can just replace the motherboard. Depending again on what you have, that would be around $50-$200 or more. A lot of gamer-centric boards are pricey because they allow for extra options or have extra slots/ports that a lot of people will never use. A vanilla mobo, though, can typically be found for $50 or so. Note that you need to know how to do this. It's not difficult, but if you've never done it, it could be intimidating. I'm sure there are guides online on how to do exactly this.

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  • I am not going to purchase any new MBoard, but as per your 1st suggestion, I would still be unable to go to BIOS setup
    – Usman Waheed
    Sep 16, 2016 at 10:23
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+50

This is a micro ATX card.

I had a look at the design specs, and if what you are saying is true, it is amazing that the motherboard works at all.

You can get a replacement board for very little money and I would strongly suggest that you do this.

Non the less, this doesn't answer your question.

You can access the USB pins directly on the motherboard at "H" in the image enter image description here

the simplest solution is to just get something like this: enter image description here Just plug a usb keyboard in to it and you should be good to go.

You can also access the BIOS configuration jumper on the lower left of the board, see page 51 in the specification for jumper settings.

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I think that the USB card is somewhat incompatible with your keyboard model, at least as concerning the very basic BIOS driver. Once Windows boots up, it uses its own driver which is more evolved and can work with this card.

If that is the case, there is no other solution than to demand from the repair shop to replace the card by another that is compatible with your BIOS. The repair shop should have several models available that they can try until they find one that works.

If you have more PCI slots that are suitable for the card, they should also try the cards in these slots as perhaps one slot was slightly damaged.

If the problem is not solved by another card or slot, then the only explanation is that the motherboard was damaged in such a way that for some hardware reason only Windows succeeds in successfully accessing this PCI card.

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    The likely reason that BIOS does not see USB devices is that it is not designed to recognize third-party USB controller on a external PCI bus, the BIOS only knows how to work with internal Intel EHCI controller. Keyboard has nothing to do with this. One thing I would try is a deep discharge of the BIOS/ mainboard, by removing CMOS CR2032 battery, and SHORTING the socket terminals. This might bring the BIOS to sane mode, and it might configure internal USB controller to default configuration. Recent mainboards can retain wrong configuration even if the residual voltage is as low as 0.4V.
    – Ale..chenski
    Sep 28, 2016 at 1:38

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