help needed please

[JC]

My flat m8 plugged his printer into his PC and somehow that caused it to crash. When rebooting windows brought up a message saying 'keyboard is locked out - unlock the key'.

There is nothing wrong with his keyboard because we've tried it in my PC and tried my keyboard in his, so people, any ideas on how to fix this problem?

Admittedly i am useless with computers so please explain in simple terms .

*realises this is his first time on this forum*

[Gayle29uk]

Motherboard failure? I haven't seen a case with a keylock for so long I can't remember anything about them

My first guess is that his mobo supports a physical lock and plugging the (parallel?) printer in while it was switched on pissed it off a tad.

Of course if he does have a case with a key lock make sure it's not locked

[edit] Google tells me there should be a jumper to bypass the keylock. Give that a go although I couldn't tell you where it is. What's the motherboard? [/edit]

[meglamaniac]

Try to find the manual for your motherboard if you have it, and if there is a way to bypass this it will tell you.
If you can't find the manual, do as Gayle suggests and get us the model number of the board. You can find this by hitting the Pause key directly after turning your system on (while it's still on the screen that displays the chip type and speed, and installed drives and stuff) and writing down the numbers at the top left of the screen.

A keyboard lock is very odd in this day and age, but something similar happened on one of my older computers.
It crashed (as in completely locked up) and when I restarted it, it complained that the keyboard lock was active and I should deactivate it.
That was all well and good as the key slot for the unlock key was on the front of the case - except I didn't have the key. The simple solution turned out to be to open it up and short out the negative and positive wires leading to the lock cylinder. A lock is only as good as it's weakest part.

[NEWSBOT3]

are these both USB devices ?

[JC]

He messed around with his PC, turned it off for a while then it started working ok when he put it back on, so for now atleast the problem is solved.

God knows what was wrong with it, as i said i am useless when it comes to IT, but thanks for the advice it was much appreciated and if it happens again i can give him some ideas of what to try .