Thinkpads Forum

I was stupid and decided to update my bios. After the shutdown, my computer wouldn't boot anymore: blank screen, lights on, no activity.

I looked around and people suggested reseting the bios by removing the cmos battery. It partially worked: the thinkpad screen now comes on but I get error 0271 check date ana time. Usually no problem since time was reset because I disconnected the barter (now reconnected).

However, my keyboard doesn't work at all to navigate the bios menu. I just get stuck on the page. What do I do? Will a new usb keyboard work?

Ps. I'm pretty sure the keyboard is not broken or disconnected: no keyboard errors, power button works, blue thinkpad button works. In fact if I hold a key down, bios spits out error 0210 key stuck.

mooingmooseman wrote:Will a new usb keyboard work?

Yes -- in a "healthy" machine, a USB cable will work from power-up, i.e., F1 will access the BIOS and all other keys will work as expected.
Good luck!

Tried usb keyboard didn't work. Bios will detected when I held the key down

mooingmooseman wrote:Tried usb keyboard didn't work. Bios will detected when I held the key down

I don't know if my interpretation of what you wrote is what you meant. Do you mean that the USB keyboard is detected but you cannot navigate once you enter the BIOS? Please tell me:
1) Does F1 take you to the BIOS?
2) Does [Esc] try to take you out of BIOS?
3) Does F10 take you out of BIOS?
4) Does the [Enter] key work?
5) How about the [Tab] key?

1) Does F1 take you to the BIOS?
No, the blue thinkvantage button does, as per the instructions on my screen
2) Does [Esc] try to take you out of BIOS?
No, once in the BIOS menu, no keys can make any changes to the menu itself. I do not say that none of the keys work, because that's also not true. While I can't navigate the menu, the keys are still responsive (fn + scrlk turns on the nmlk LED light, fn + pgup turns on the thinklight, fn + home makes the screen brighter, fn + f7 moves the screen to my external monitor).
3) Does F10 take you out of BIOS?
No, see #2
4) Does the [Enter] key work?
No, see #2
5) How about the [Tab] key?[/quote]
No, see #2

UPDATE THOUGH: I literally booted and mashed all of my keys no fewer than 20 times. After I gave up and spent 2 hours online trying to buy a new computer, I gave it one last try before bed. However, suddenly, this time, the keyboard was responsive. I did absolutely nothing different (other than let time pass). Computers are the strangest creatures.

I've described my situation above anyway in case anyone else has the same problem in the future though. Thanks to all for looking at this!

I had a similar problem and I can confirm the solution works after several tries. Keyboard simply 'picked' up.
Many thanks to the forum.