Keyboard unresponsive after update with A-Tuning

Hi everyone.

I have a Z97 Pro4 and Yesterday I decided to update the BIOS as well as some other drivers (ME, etc) since they were outdated as well according to A-Tuning tool/Live Update.

I remember I had BIOS version 1.70 and 1.80 was the latest. After some glitches in the download that kept aborting I finally got trough and the message "installing BIOS..." or something like that appeared after which the PC suddenly shutdown. Now I have this startup screen with the ASRock logo and 4 options F2, F6, F11 and DEL if I remember correctly. The problem being that my USB keyboard that was working fine one minute ago is now totally ignored. Needless to say that I've tried other USB ports and even used a PS2/USB adapter booting the PC several times in the process. NOTHING works! I pressed all keys and even played piano with it to no avail.

I'm totally frustrated as I can't even comprehend how updating SW using the A-Tuning tool can lead to this situation.

How can I solve this problem?


Edited by cochinada - 15 May 2015 at 4:29pm

i remember asrock has a feature called "crashless bios"

cochinada wrote: Hi everyone. I have a Z97 Pro4 and Yesterday I decided to update the BIOS as well as some other drivers (ME, etc) since they were outdated as well according to A-Tuning tool/Live Update. I remember I had BIOS version 1.70 and 1.80 was the latest. After some glitches in the download that kept aborting I finally got trough and the message "installing BIOS..." or something like that appeared after which the PC suddenly shutdown. Now I have this startup screen with the ASRock logo and 4 options F2, F6, F11 and DEL if I remember correctly. The problem being that my USB keyboard that was working fine one minute ago is now totally ignored. Needless to say that I've tried other USB ports and even used a PS2/USB adapter booting the PC several times in the process. NOTHING works! I pressed all keys and even played piano with it to no avail. I'm totally frustrated as I can't even comprehend how updating SW using the A-Tuning tool can lead to this situation. How can I solve this problem?

You don't know if your BIOS update failed. Actually from your description it seems to have worked, since after a BIOS update normally you are prompted to either enter the BIOS to change settings, or just press a key to use the default. After updating the BIOS it is normal that the PC will shut off and then start again.

Crashless BIOS is a BIOS recovery feature that work in a specific situation. That is, if during a BIOS update using Instant Flash and a USB flash drive, the PC loses power, the BIOS update will continue when power is restored. This won't help in your situation.

BTW, the Clear CMOS procedure only sets the BIOS options back to their default values. It does not restore a previous version of the BIOS. The BIOS of a board is considered its firmware. Nothing else is affected except the BIOS settings being set to default values when a Clear CMOS procedure is done. It has no affect on Windows drivers or other device firmware.

What version of Windows are you using, and what drivers did you update?

Rather bold of you to update drivers and the BIOS at one time, sorry to say. Try the following before attempting to clear the CMOS/BIOS with the jumper. Be sure to have your keyboard and mouse in USB 2.0 ports on the boards rear IO panel.

With the PC on and apparently stuck on the POST option screen, press the Reset button on the PC case. Doesn't sound like much, I know. Try it.

If the reset does not work, shut off the PC, turn off PSU and unplug from AC power. Open the case and find the CMOS clear jumper on the board. Remove the jumper from the two pins on the left, and move it over to the right and insert it on the middle and right pin. Let it sit there for a minute or so. Then put the jumper back in its original position on the left most and center pin. That all there is to it.

Connect the AC power again, turn on the PSU, start the PC and let us know what happens.

Good, glad that was a simple fix for you.

While tempting, it is best not to update to much at one time. Windows updates are usually Ok to do a bunch at a time, but drivers and particularly a BIOS update is best done by itself.

That way you know what caused any problems, if you have any.

Downloading all the Windows 7 updates at once would take a while and sure keep a PC busy for a while too. I wonder what Microsoft's suggestion about applying updates is.