BIOS access problem

R34lN1nj4 · Derestricted Danger Joined: 18 Feb 2010 Karma :

I am trying to upgrade my XP to W7, which I have to do by wiping and reinstalling windows.

In order to do that I need to be able to boot from the CD, which is sitting in my drive and is trying to boot, as on the start up is asks me to press any key to boot from cd.

However, it wont take inputs from my keyboard cos it's a USB board and doesnt power up until after the set up.

I have tried plugging in an older type keyboard with the round plug socket at the back, and not only does it ignore that, it also fails to boot at all - hanging after the 'press any key to boot from disk' message

Obviously I need some way of accessing the BIOS, but cant do it before XP starts, is there any other way of accessing it, it forcing it to enter BIOS any other way?

Frost · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 May 2004 Karma :

Plug in the older keyboard, make sure it goes into the blue socket. You will often have to restart before it detects it. During loading press delete repeatedly until you get to BIOS. Then set the boot order to be CD first. To be honest it sounds like it is already CD first so you can probably leave BIOS alone. Just try the old keyboard in the correct socket and a restart.

R34lN1nj4 · Derestricted Danger Joined: 18 Feb 2010 Karma :

OK, tried that, and to no avail.

As I mentioned the older keyboard gets ignored also, but causes the PC to hang just before where it would normally bring up the windows logo and the 'loading' type bar.

Keyboards (all of them!) work fine if I leave it to boot properly and then use them, but obviously it is too late by then, cos then I cant access the BIOS or boot from CD.

One question though...

The older keyboard I am using for this has a purple, round connection on it and not a blue one. The only blue connector I can see is a short oblong one, similar to an old joystick port, is this the one i should be connected to?

Also...

If I was to set the jumpers on my main HD to slave and set the jumper on the CD to master, would that make it boot from CD automatically?

Pernig · World Chat Champion Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Karma :

Easier solution:

Boot into XP as normal, then run the Windows 7 setup CD. Select a 'custom' install on the same drive where XP is already installed. Setup will move the files in the Windows folder to 'Windows.old', and will reboot automatically after the first steps, allowing you to continue with Windows 7 setup as normal.
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H100 Breaking for spares

sweetleaf · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 22 Apr 2010 Karma :

R34lN1nj4 · Derestricted Danger Joined: 18 Feb 2010 Karma :

Stowelly · Traffic Copper Joined: 25 Oct 2009 Karma :

try resetting the bios, by removing the cmos battery from the motherboard for a few seconds..... most bios have a option to enable usb keyboards for boot, not too sure whether this should be on by default. but wont hurt to try i guess