Controlling a server that was powered up without a keyboard/mouse plugged in?

It is possible that it will recognize a USB keyboard, but not guaranteed.  Some need settings in the BIOS changed, and you would definitely have to have the USB ports enabled in the BIOS.  Right now, I think it's your best bet.

A USB keyboard should work. It certainly won't hurt, since you can plug USB devices in at any time.

For the future, once you get a keyboard working, you could also try adding a REG_DWORD value called Headless to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters and set it to 1. That will disable the check for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse on boot in the future and will prevent i8042prt errors from showing up in the event viewer and would even let you plug a PS/2 keyboard in after booting (though I'd recommend USB if you have it, since it's safer to hot swap).

By the way, if the USB keyboard doesn't work, what is it that the boss needs to do on the server? There may be a way to do it remotely, even if remote desktop is disabled.

Thoffman,


Good question...

 The boss just wants to be able to power off the server in an orderly fashion....then plug in the mouse/ keyboard.
Then just use it as normal.

tmiscbc

Generally speaking,turning it off won't screw anything up.

Does your boss have a clue as to how computers work ,or is he just paranoid?

Use psshutdown (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/psshutdown.mspx)

this will work ... i stole it from this post: https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21053744/How-can-i-shutdown-a-remote-computer-on-my-workgroup.html


Remote Shutdown

Shutdown.exe is available in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Resource Kit. It is a command-line tool that you can use to shut down or restart a local or remote computer that is running Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0. If you want to schedule a computer to shut down and restart at a specific time, use Shutdown.exe in combination with the at command or Task Scheduler.


HOW TO: Use the Remote Shutdown Tool to Shut Down and Restart a Computer in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317371

*****Software*****

PsShutdown is a command-line utility similar to the shutdown utility from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit, but with the ability to do much more. In addition to supporting the same options for shutting down or rebooting the local or a remote computer, PsShutdown can logoff the console user or lock the console (locking requires Windows 2000 or higher). PsShutdown requires no manual installation of client software.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/psshutdown.shtml
Syntax: "psshutdown -u username -p password -r \\computername"

EMCO Remote Shutdown 1.4 is a Freeware utility to Shutdown/Reboot one or many machines on a NT network's. It works only under Administrator rights.
http://www.emco.is/remoteshutdown/rsdfeatures.html

Multi-Remote Shutdown Manager is an easy and fast way to shutdown the computers you administer
http://www.eytcheson.com/mrsm.htm

remote SHUTDOWN by Apteryx is a Windows Service that allows an administrator to logoff, shutdown* or reboot individual and/or grouped networked computers on demand from an easy to use interface. remote SHUTDOWN can also be used to route logoff, shutdown or reboot requests to individual or groups of other computers on the network also running remote SHUTDOWN
http://www.apteryxware.com/remoteshutdown/

FREEWARE
PowerOff
http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html
The new direct download link for poweroff 3.0 is:
http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/pwroff30.zip