I had this same error on one of my customer's computers and couldn't find a solution anywhere on the internet. After trying the keyboard in every USB port, removing the battery, replacing the MB, substituting hard drives, RAM and the power supply with no luck, I was about to give up. I then closely examined each of the USB ports and noticed that one of the two front ports had the little solid part missing. I don't know what that piece is called, but it fits into the empty slot in the male USB plugs. I disconnected the cable connecting these ports from the motherboard and the computer booted right up. In place of the "keyboard failure" error there is now a "front cable disconnected" error which you can bypass by hitting the F1 key. I have yet to see if this message can be disabled in the BIOS.