I have a 10 year old Compaq running Win. 98. It was not used for about a year, and when I tried to turn it on I got the message,"FF 301 Keyboard Error. I connected the keyboard from my good computer, but got the same message. So it is not the keyboard that is in error. How do I find and fix the problem?

Hi,

This can happen if you have the mouse and keyboard plugged in the wrong ports. Can you double-check you are plugging the keyboard into the correct port.....

I also have the same problem with a compaq PII.

If I leave it pluged in all is well. If I unplug it and move to another site, with same keyboard and mouse it will error 301.

Plug back in at home and all is well.

Now this is strange !!

Any idea anyone

Well, seems unlikely to me that it could be specifically a problem with 'old compaqs', but my spare computer is indeed an old compaq...it's been switched off for a week (meanwhile I bought a new machine) and today I turned the compaq on as normal, and got 'FF Error 301 keyboard error', which I've actually never seen before, on any other machine. It's a puzzle. Pressing F1 did nothing.

Well, sorry I can't help, just happen to be in the same boat that's all.

sorry I haven't found any solution to this, but thought I'd share what I did find:

301 Keyboard did not respond to software reset correctly, or a stuck
key failure was detected. If a stuck key was detected, the
scan code for the key is displayed in hexadecimal. For
example, the error code 49 301 indicates that key 73, the
PgUp key, has failed (49 hex = 73 decimal).

ff (Keyboard error)
Three common causes for keyboard error are: (i) several keys pressed simultaneously, (ii) keyboard buffer overflow, (iii) parity error on the serial line used by keyboard and keyboard controller for communication. The error reported is ff in scancode mode 1, and 00 in scancode modes 2 and 3. If translation is on, both 00 and ff are translated as ff.

FF Reset, Keyboard sends ACK and waits for system to receive it
then begins a program reset and Basic Assurance Test (BAT).
Keyboard returns a one byte completion code then sets default
Scan Code Set 2.

FF Key Detection Error or Overrun Error for Scan Code Set 2 or 3,
replaces last key in the keyboard buffer if the buffer is full.

sorry I haven't found any solution to this, but thought I'd share what I did find:

301 Keyboard did not respond to software reset correctly, or a stuck
key failure was detected. If a stuck key was detected...

thanks to jephree...

I'd figured it was 'stuck key' already, and even though the causes for it (in my case) may not help anyone else in the world, I place it here for amusement value only.

My 'spare' compaq PC is used almost exclueively by a friend of mine to type out the script for his next graphic novel, but, since he has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder - hand-washing, generally 'dirt' fixation) he won't use the keyboard unless I've cleaned it thoroughtly first...he was due at my house to write some more today, so I cleaned the keyboard (somewhat over-zealously as it turned out), re-attached it, switched on the machine and...

got the 301 error. Dunno whay I did not immediately connect this to the 'cleaning', but...it's never happened before.

It turned out that one of the keys was indeed stuck in a down position, or at least the computer detected it as such.

All I had to was tap every key sequentially and soon as the right one was tapped the PC booted up normally. Unfortunately my writer friend missed a day's work coz I phoned him to say "the machine's broke!" There is irony here somewhere....

If he could only bear 'invisible dirt' he'd get more work done.

Did anyone come up with a fix.