Whats not working right lately, the keyboard or 9600?

Is the machine unplugged when not in use? How old is the PRAM battery? Otherwise it may need a re-cap. I can only assume like Macs before the startup circuit has different paths for the power button and keyboard input. Thus if caps go one method can work, the other not. I've ran into this with the IIcx for example. Keyboard would not boot it, power button would. Once uniserver did a re-cap, all was well!