Keyboard issue that Reddit ignored

[MrGinger]

I'm trying to fix an issue with my home server that requires FreeDos or at least something similar.  I've tried different keyboards, resetting my UEFI, and also different command line interfaces.  I tried r/pchelp but the best response I got was "Different keyboard, different operating systems, same PC? Then it can only be your PC" .  Does anyone here have any "real" insight as to why this is happening?

[Bombastinator]

37 minutes ago, MrGinger said:

I'm trying to fix an issue with my home server that requires FreeDos or at least something similar.  I've tried different keyboards, resetting my UEFI, and also different command line interfaces.  I tried r/pchelp but the best response I got was "Different keyboard, different operating systems, same PC? Then it can only be your PC" .  Does anyone here have any "real" insight as to why this is happening?

 

The way a keyboard at least used to work is each key had a “scan code”. The keyboard driver continually scanned the keyboard looking for key presses.  When it found one it sent the scan code to the keyboard driver which put that code in the data bus. The keyboard system had its own register and everything and sat  in the southbridge on really old machines and the chipset/bch on newer ones. It’s supposed to pick up only one key at a time unless a certain is passed at which point it starts adding more.  For whatever reason your time limit is messed up.  That should be a hardware thing, or at least a pre app thing.  Freedos is really old. It may be the machine is just so fast compared to what it was written for and that someone did the timer in clock cycles instead of seconds.  One would assume there’s a way to adjust that somewhere. A setting or some such.

[Acewing]

Looks like there's no delay before the keyboard starts to repeat the keypresses 
What is this machine? Specs? What OSes have you tried? And have you tried using the keyboard in the BIOS/UEFI? Does it exhibit the same behaviour there or is it different?

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Acewing said:

Looks like there's no delay before the keyboard starts to repeat the keypresses 
What is this machine? Specs? What OSes have you tried? And have you tried using the keyboard in the BIOS/UEFI? Does it exhibit the same behaviour there or is it different?

Looks like that, but might still be there.  It just may be timed in clock cycles for a 33mhz machine instead of the 300mhz board he could be using. Stats will matter.  I agree that they need to be mentioned.  I’ve very rarely seen a troubleshooting post where they didn’t.  I never even knew the DOS commands to change such a thing.  They likely exist though.  My knowledge of UFEI is pretty deficient.  The keyboard may have its controller in the hardware now, in which case it’s the keyboard itself with a hardware problem.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Bombastinator

[MrGinger]

I've tried several very different keyboards. And the issue isn't present in the UEFI.  My parts list is here:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/irish_red89/saved/#view=wZvnpg

 

Edit: I've tried my unRAID install, PopOS, and Linux Mint.  I can't even get into the local GUI of unRAID because it does this on the boot menu (GRUB, maybe?)

Edited February 19, 2022 by MrGinger
Clarification

[Acewing]

1 minute ago, MrGinger said:

I've tried several very different keyboards. And the issue isn't present in the UEFI.  My parts list is here:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/irish_red89/saved/#view=wZvnpg

Okay so we can probably eliminate a problem in the hardware itself.
Next up is the OS. Have you only tried FreeDOS (is it a modern version?), or have you tried multiple different operating systems? ("different command line interfaces" isn't very clear here, as to whether you mean different OSes or different command interpreters for FreeDOS, if that's even possible)

[MrGinger]

3 minutes ago, Acewing said:

Okay so we can probably eliminate a problem in the hardware itself.
Next up is the OS. Have you only tried FreeDOS (is it a modern version?), or have you tried multiple different operating systems? ("different command line interfaces" isn't very clear here, as to whether you mean different OSes or different command interpreters for FreeDOS, if that's even possible)

I added some clarification to my last post around the same time you posted this.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, MrGinger said:

I added some clarification to my last post around the same time you posted this.

The thing about freeDOS is it’s DOS. DOS was designed for systems in the 4-5mhz range. (Notice that’s an m not a g)  The quickest solution might be to find the DOS command to change the delay on your keyboard. The internet is handy for things like that.

[MrGinger]

50 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

The thing about freeDOS is it’s DOS. DOS was designed for systems in the 4-5mhz range. (Notice that’s an m not a g)  The quickest solution might be to find the DOS command to change the delay on your keyboard. The internet is handy for things like that.

All of the commands I've found involve typing them in, which is currently the issue.  I'm most confused as to why this has just started happening. I used freeDOS on the same hardware a month ago to flash my serveRAID card.

[Bombastinator]

42 minutes ago, MrGinger said:

All of the commands I've found involve typing them in, which is currently the issue.  I'm most confused as to why this has just started happening. I used freeDOS on the same hardware a month ago to flash my serveRAID card.

So it was fine and then suddenly stopped?  That implies either a setting was changed or some hardware thing gave it up. There’s no information on what the hardware even is, so it’s possible it’s got a discrete keyboard controller if it’s old enough.  It was the last part that was integrated into the bch. If that happened it could be the chip or the pcb it’s soldered to.

[Mo5]

I haven't seen any info on this but were the keyboards you tried USB or PS/2? Because it might be that USB support for keyboards is iffy or your particular keyboards don't really play well with DOS under USB. PS/2 is almost always a safer bet for this kinda stuff. Or maybe it's because it's USB3. If you have any USB2 ports on your pc try that (or one of those usb2 pci-e cards on hand).

[MrGinger]

My freeDOS flash drive and my unRAID flash drive are both USB 3.0.  I'm assuming both ports I tried the keyboards on were on the same controllers as those. I removed the unRAID drive and that port worked with the keyboards.

[Acewing]

Your motherboard appears to have a PS/2 port (at least according to https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B550 Phantom Gaming 4/index.asp )
Might be worth trying to source a PS/2 keyboard and see if the same issue happens there 
 
(EDIT: Ignore if the problem is solved now. It's not quite clear from your last post)

Edited February 20, 2022 by Acewing