Keyboard not working in RHEL5

[shreedara]

in order to select multiple items, shift key was hold for several seconds[sure > 8sec] and there after system is not taking any input from keyboard. however only the mouse works. i searched a lot and found some remedies like hold right and/or left shift keys for 8 sec and it will revert back. press shift key 5 times and hold ins key for 8 sec etc,. but i tried all these and none of it seems to be working. i even hold some alphabet key for 8 seconds to see if it takes input, but none of them seems to be working

i connected this keyboard to other machine and it works fine. this keyboard is USB dell keyboard. i tried logging in init level 3 and even with this i can not input anything from keyboard.

i did reboot several times and unable to even login as it does not take any keyboard input. the only way i can access this system is to remote login from other system and work on command prompt!!

is there a fix to it? accidentally if something is changed in which file it is saved? can i edit that file and restore to normal? am not sure if all these does not work i may have to reformat!! but this is the last thing i want to do

any help?

while booting i pressed F2 [BIOS stage] and the keyboard works fine. but only after this even at grub stage keyboard stops working

[Rubberman]

There is a "legacy USB" setting on most BIOS's that allows operating systems that don't understand USB keyboards/mice to work with them. If this is set, then an OS that does know about USB keyboards will not function properly. Also, it is possible that your computer's USB controller or port is having problems, since you say that the keyboard works ok on another system. Try the other ports on the system to see if that has any effect.