Need help trouble-shooting boot mess.

[David Armour]

Hello Andrew
 
> On Mon, 2009-11-16 at 00:44 +0000, David Armour wrote:
> > ...the boot up screen where you use the arrow keys to select 
> > 'recovery' mode doesn't produce any response to key pressing! Booting
> > progresses normally otherwise, and once I've logged in
> > everything looks and acts much as it has for a number of years now...[1]
> 
> 2 questions: 
>      1. Is your computer an older computer (4-5 years old?)
>      2. have you recently switched keyboards (such as from a PS2
>         keyboard, to a USB keyboard, or the other way around)?
> 

Thanks for your reply. I'd have to guess that my computer is relatively ancient
(bought used and upgraded in fits and starts, most recently (in June) with an
AMD Sempron motherboard). And yes, I have been using a Microsoft USB/PS2 hybrid
keyboard. I have been using the keyboard now for a couple of years, and only
noticed the behaviour above a couple of weeks back. 

<snip>

> If you have BIOS keyboard control, then I don't know... maybe
> reinstalling GRUB would help?

Of course, I also have to go back to work tomorrow, so it'll take me a couple
more days to get around to trying your suggestion. 
> 
> Just in case it's helpful: The way I fixed my issue was to plug in my
> old PS2 keyboard (and remove the USB), reboot and get into BIOS, and hit
> the 'Reset to Factory Defaults' option. Then, just after hitting 'save
> and exit' power off, unplug the PS2 keyboard and lug in the USB, then
> start up again. It worked fine from then on, 

I just replaced the keyboard on my second computer which was garbling the login
input as well as a usb cable that was blocking the os from seeing the external
hard drive. Every so often, some sort of hardware issue shows up.

Thanks for your suggestions.