My Mac won't boot past white screen and startup keys won't work

Hello. I have an iMac not sure what year.
So about a year ago it froze and wouldn't restart, so I neglected it for a year. Now that this my only fixable Mac I have been researching to fix it. I was able to boot into safe mode about a week ago for a little bit but then it froze again. Ever since then none of the startup keys work, even resetting the PRAM, I heard the second ding and then it just brings up the cursor on the white screen with no disk options.
I have an external disk drive connected to the USB I'd like to boot my Mountain Lion from but since the start up keys don't work I don't know how to do that.
Any help would be incredible, I do not care about saving anything from the computer I just want it to work. I hate dealing with the "geniuses" so that's not an option.
Thanks

When you hear the startup tone hold down the Option key and you should be able to boot into the Recovery Partition if you have Lion, Mt. Lion or Mavericks on the internal HD. If even the Option key does not work then your keyboard may have dead batteries or be defective and in need of replacement.
If you have ML on the EHD as a bootable clone then you should be able to boot from it.
My best guess is you have a failed HD though, my advice is to take it in for professional diagnosis to your local Apple Store or AASP and get a quote on what is wrong then decide  how you want to proceed.

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    Is there anything else I can try? Will I need to have a new motherboard installed?
    Thanks.
    BTW, don't worry, I am saving to buy a new Mac as soon as I can.

    Trackpad button does nothing
    Option key does nothing
    PRAM resetting at least reboots the computer
    Startup chime - normal
    Shift key - nothing
    If removing the internal drive and booting from an external would do anything I'd certainly try that.
    Since the computer is 6 years old, ironic since I'm typing this on my old G4 tower, it will be replaced with a Mini since I no longer have a need for a laptop. It's also out of warranty and will probably not be worth the cost to get it fixed.
    The geniuses at the Apple store suggested I buy a new hard drive and that would solve my problems. I highly doubt it since I've put another drive in and it's doing the same thing.

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