uncomunicative key boards

[hefastref]

computer= idesign 170 pacard bell S/N01157882010
i was given this unit ,told it had bad hard drive(true) however i cannot do any thing with it as when it starts no wired keyboard seems to work, the unit beeps the keyboard problem noise,when i press keys it pauses as it receives the signal(i can also wake it with del key) but seems not to recognise any key as a command  (f1 f12 f8 ect) thusly i can progress no further with rebuild i have tried 4 keyboards! i have reached the end of safe experimentation any help greatly appreciated.
ps it comes with a wireles board as standard but this is fairly obviously no use at this stage.

[patio]

Remove all power to the machine , open the case and carefully remove the CMOS battery from the mainboard for about 10 minutes...
This will reset the BIOS back to the default values...
It's about the size of a dime part # CR2032.

Reinstall it and power up to see if this works.
If not that PS2 port is probably shot

[hefastref]

i tried that, it said CMOS/GPNV bad checksum press F1 or F2 to get default or set up,which of course i could not do! visualy the port connection looks ok but hey ,maybee buy new port ,hope its not the mother board. thanx for your help   how hard to fit new port unit?though as it was cordless before u might think it would be asnew!! thanx again

[patio]

Replace that battery if you are getting bad checksum errors...

[GX1_Man]

And there is no point pursuing ANYTHING else until this is done.

[hefastref]

First, thanx for your time,have tried the battery,and done some research before replying,
AMD Athalon(tm) XP 1700+
Checking NVRAM..
507904KB OK+ 16384KB Shared memory

F2 setup F8 Boot F12 Network Boot ESC Logo
auto detect pri master...ide hard disc
auto detect pri slave...not detected
auto detect primaster... atapi cd rom
auto detecting sec slave ....not detected
primary IDE Channel 80 conductor cable installed
pri master V5DOA42A hitachi HDT75025VLAT80
               Ultra DMA Mode-5, S.M.A.R.T  Capable but disabled
sec master: T100

CMOS Settings Wrong

press F1 F2  for default/ set up
the keyboard i know to be good lights the num lock continiuos beep fault for keyboard persists but still pauses if key pressed with no request action taken
mother board is socket 426 MS-6511 explorer
i have tried using the clear CMOS clear jumper.
i can see you guys get a lot of help requests! any input welcome :-/
ps also tried USB board to no effect.

[GX1_Man]

If a known good wired PS/2 keyboard does not work in the BIOS, then the port itself (and maybe other things on the motherboard) are damaged, assuming the keyboard is not disabled in the BIOS. I have found that frequently when I am "given" things, there is a reason other than generosity.  

[hefastref]

I fear we reach the end of this saga with a lesson well learned!
the new drive (and memory) i bought is not formatted yet, i believed  i was not that far along yet,perhaps i can use them for one of my other "need upgrading" computers,thanx again