After adding a new USB 2.0 card, my Compaq 5000 series Presario starts to boot and turns off. Counts up to 138mb memory of 256 and freezes there.
The keyboard is rendered inoperable. What might have happened? Would appreciate any input on this.

hello lablankiddo and welcome to techspot, first i would advise you to take the new usb card out (gorunding yourself first of corce) then boot the system and see you get into windows

proceed with the aforementioned advice. if the system does boot up without the card, return the one you bought and get a higher quality (name brand) card.

Destructive addition of usb card

This is the sequence of events:
I jumped the gun I guess by first installing the PCI card onto the MB.
before installing the software. The PC was booting OK when I decided maybe I should turn it off and install the software first. After that, the PC would start and turn off after a few seconds--nothing on screen. I tried another functional same wattage power supply--same results. I started fiddling with group connector on mb which has the power and reset trmnls. I got the PC to stay on, however it starts counting the Ram of 256 and stops at 137 or less and freezes. Screen on /Keyboard inoperable. Any ideas?

hmm, maybe check to see if the powersupply wires are seated properly into the mobo and that all of them are connectd


(what happionds when the card is removed)

Or try to find newer software for your card.

destructive addtn of usb 2.0 card

The PC will not go past counting the RAM. Freezes--does not let me go into Setup because the keyboard is inoperable. This is with the card installed or not installed.

not good. Sounds like ESD. (static). Remove the CMOS battery then replace after a minute and remove the card and reboot.

Possibility you may have shocked something.

destructive usb card

How do you tell if motherboard or cpu has failed? I do get the ram counted on the monitor screen, however, the computer freezes there and does not let me use the keyboard. If I press the Esc key while it counts the ram, it will go to the proper total ram immediately but denies any more use of the keyboard. Any ideas would be appreciated.

if you have a BIOS ram failure (which you just described) then you must remove and replace your ram components and see if that works. If it does, your original ram was bad. If not, your motherboard or CPU is bad. Your CPU can only be tested on another motherboard.

Before tossing the old ram, run in another system and use memtest 86+ booted from a floppy to test if it really is bad.

Destructive addition of usb card

Finally the PC started up again normally. I had removed the celeron processor a few times. I did it one final time and it started up normally again.
I know I wasn't inserting it wrong because I know it has to be in a certain position for it to go in the socket. I'd like to thank the Academy, the producer, the cast, and everyone that provided input to aleviate this condition.
Thanx again everyone and may God Bless.
Albert Salinas