Booting PC without keyboard

[NikB]

I am using an old PC as storage on my home network to backup files from my main PC.

Problem is that I cannot get the old PC to boot without a keyboard attached (it doesn't need one as it's only accessed vis the network).

I cannot find a BIOS option to disable the check, do I need to update the BIOS or is there a widget I can buy to plug in to stop this (don't try suggesting a keyboard)?

[JonRB]

Most KVM boxes have this feature, but could be overkill for what you want.

Having said that, if such a gadget as you require existed, it would be so specialist as to be probably more expensive than a cheap KVM.

To be honest, a cheap keyboard would probably be your cheapest option. You could always remove all the keys and re-house it in a small project box if space is an issue.

[malman]

They do exist but they aint cheap

black box keyboard/mouse ghost
vetra phantom keyboard

[zumbruk]

A quick Google for "keyboard eliminators" yields lots of boxes, which are much more expensive than keyboards....

I must admit I have always used a broken keyboard instead.

[NikB]

Thanks guys, maybe I should buy a nice wireless keyboard and mouse for my main machine and move the old ones onto the backup machine....

[Plotloss]

Is there an error checking setting in the bios?

If you set this to NONE it should boot without a keyboard.

Does depend on BIOS and age etc though.

[agent006]

Plug keyboard in.
Boot PC.
Unplug keyboard.

Sorted.

[viperdave]

Disable halt on error or something similar in the bios if you have it. I.e. so it doesn’t stop and display keyboard error during POST but carries on regardless.

Some PC’s also have an alternate boot device order for error conditions (IBM netvista for one) so it may be worth checking for that also.