Keyboard does not work at Encryption Desktop bootguard

Products

• Drive Encryption
• Drive Encryption Powered by PGP Technology

Issue/Introduction

On certain machines, the keyboard does not work at all at bootguard (pre-boot). For example, on the HP ProDesk 600 G1 Small Form Factor.

 

Environment

Symantec Encryption Desktop 10.4.2 and above.

Resolution

Please try the following, in order:

1. Try the keyboard with every USB port on the machine.
2. Update the machine's BIOS to the latest version.
3. Update to the latest release of Encryption Desktop. Note that so long as you are updating a machine rather than doing a fresh install, you can use the standalone release of Encryption Desktop which you can download from the Broadcom support portal. Note that Broadcom does not support production environments where the Encryption Desktop client is at a later release than Encryption Management Server. Therefore, if updating to the latest release of Encryption Desktop resolves the issue on a sample machine, update Encryption Management Server to the latest release before updating other machines.
4. Try a PS/2 keyboard. If it works, purchase PS/2 keyboards or USB to PS/2 adapters. Adapters can be purchased for a few dollars.

Although it is sometimes possible for Broadcom engineering to add support for specific machines, this generally involves the customer shipping the machine to a Broadcom office. This is often not a practical proposition. Once Broadcom engineering have access to a sample machine, it takes months for source code changes to find their way into a product release.