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Win xp reinstall

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9 replies

by phillip.donnan

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I'm trying to reinstall windows xp. my problem is when it says to press any key to boot from disc despite hammering my keyboard it just continues to load windows. How do i get it to boot from the cd?

9 replies

by jdmercha

Check your system BIOS. Make sure it is up to date and has USB enabled. I've seen similar results when a USB keyboard is not recognized by the BIOS.

by alquinones

Most system have a page just for booting and what the system will use to boot. Pay close attention to that page and I know you will find the your answer.

by phillip.donnan

can someone explain how i check system bios to see if it usb enabled?

by phillip.donnan

agreed it is not recognising my keyboard during bootup, how do i get it to do this? I tries another keyboard in usb but no luck.

by mr.wiz

If you have a PS2 keyboard handy try using that one. Some older system boards don't initialize USB immediately.

by sunflour12

I have the same problem. My PS2 port doesn't work and so I am using a USB Keyboard. I desperately need to format and reinstall XP. But when I try to boot of the XP cd it prompts me to press any key and I cannot because my keyboard doesn't power up or get detected.. What do I do?

by adam.prall

...although I'm sure people have answered this by now :-)
here's a solution for people Googling this problem: if
you're like me and run in a mostly-Mac environment and
don't have a single freakin' PS/2 keyboard around for your
PCs, just go to your system's BIOS (mine's "F2" on boot-
yours may be "F1" or "DELETE" key instead, as the
keyboard *does* work at this point). Find the option to
change USB Settings - then enable "USB Legacy Support".
This will allow your keyboard to actually work during
"Press any key to boot from CD/DVD" (stupid, that
message! why else would I leave a Vista disc in the drive
unless I wanted to boot from the durn thing?)

by nandha

It works! Thanks a lot. This problem was driving me up the wall. I couldnt get my hands on a ps2 keyboard and was running out of ideas. I've encountered this problem with another pc before but got around it by switching the USB kb with a ps2 one. Lucky i found this post. Very strange why the keyboard responds during the POST and then stops when it comes to booting the CD.

BTW, my googling skills must be bad cos this is the first time i'm seeing this solution. :)

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