Keyboard can't be found.

[xxcitizenerased]

Okay. So I'm fixing up this old computer before my dad lets me build my own. You might've saw my post on the Harddrive and Storage board. Anyway, I've come to realize that the harddrive is too new for this old computer. Anyway, the problem is, the keyboard cannot be found. No matter what keyboard I put in it won't work, yet they all work on my computer I'm on now.

I know I have a faulty keyboard port on the motherboard, but my dad refuses to believe me. He believes that I need to run a bootup disc in order to install all the software I need. I tell him I need a keyboard to do anything so I can at least run the BIOS. My main argument is that if they keyboard can't be read and I need to install the bootup disc for it to work, why would the CD Drive automatically work without anything being loaded?

Who's right here? Is my keyboard port just faulty? Shouldn't the keyboard be plug-in and work no matter what computer (even if there is no software of any kind, not even an OS) it's on? Or is my dad right in saying I need a bootup disc to run the keyboard, but not one for the CD Drive to work?

[glc]

Is the keyboard port a standard PS/2 or is it the old large DIN plug? Are you sure you aren't plugging a keyboard into a PS/2 mouse port? If it has a DIN keyboard port, you need either a DIN keyboard or a DIN to PS/2 adapter.

You are correct - you are dead in the water with no keyboard, a bootdisk has nothing to do with making a keyboard work.