[mdm11]

From my Windows XP I attempted a Vista 32bit upgrade. Everything installed correctly, I believe, and did its thing for a couple of hours. However, after the computer reboot, it rebooted into "Windows Error Recovery" where there is a short list of "options." However, I am unable to use my keyboard to choose any of these options. It is stuck on "Start Windows Normally" -- which it automatically selects, and reboots. It does reboot, but into the same exact screen, of which I cannot use my keyboard, for some reason.

Upon this first happening I thought my wireless keyboard was not working, though it did successfully let me into the BIOS to play around. So evidently my keyboard was fine. I then read online that some wireless keyboards do not operate in DOS -- so I get myself a standard USB plug-in keyboard (brand new, straight out of the box), but get the same results. I cannot choose any options from either the "Windows Boot Manager" or the "Windows Error Recovery" menus.

Then I rearranged the boot up sequence in the BIOS and made it boot to CD/DVD first. So I insert my Windows Vista disc (and later my Windows XP disc) and when the computer comes up with "Press any key to boot from CD..." the computer will not, again, respond to my keyboard. It then proceeds to boot into the same two menus.

So, here's where I am now: I do not have a floppy drive to boot from (let alone disks!) and I have no blank CDs to burn the "Ultimate Boot Disc" -- nor do I have any other HDDs to toss in there and boot up to manage this error.

My computer is all brand new parts (as of last December) and has never given me any problems before. I've never encountered anything quite like this and am genuinely stumped. Does anyone have any further troubleshooting tips for me? I could go out and buy some blank CDs to create "boot cds" from WinBuilder (such as VistaPE or BartPE) but I'm not convinced that they will work, even if the Vista and XP disks won't, either.

Thanks for reading.

Best,

Matt

[mdm11]

I was able to get ahold of a blank cd-r, so I installed VistaPE on it (from my laptop, which I'm using now) and popped it into my desktop which is having the problem. It booted, or seemingly wanted to boot, to the cd but for some reason didn't. After a few minutes of what appeared to be wanting to "read" the cd, the computer went back into the same two menus as described in the first post.

[Rich-M]

Can you borrow a Ps2 keyboard? I have seen this issue enough times where at a certain point usb keyboards are not recognized...check to see if "F-Lock" is on on your keyboard also and change that if yes.

[mdm11]

Thanks Rich -- I'll try to get one, however, I'm not sure _where_ to get one. I tried one of the local Goodwills the other day and they didn't have one. There are other Goodwills, so I guess I could try there. Nobody that I know has a Ps2 keyboard. I've looked for the F-Lock on the current USB keyboard, but I don't see anything. I guess I'm going Goodwill shopping again for a Ps2...

[DaveA]

A new one should run around $15.00 US

[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by mdm11

Thanks Rich -- I'll try to get one, however, I'm not sure _where_ to get one. I tried one of the local Goodwills the other day and they didn't have one. There are other Goodwills, so I guess I could try there. Nobody that I know has a Ps2 keyboard. I've looked for the F-Lock on the current USB keyboard, but I don't see anything. I guess I'm going Goodwill shopping again for a Ps2...

That's odd, I wouldn't use a pc if it meant I had to use a usb mouse of keyboard. In fact I use usb nothing if I can help it as I only have a usb scanner because I can't find a firewire one I can afford.
There are 2 things that would cause me not to buy a motherboard. One is no PS2 ports and the other is no parallel port.

[toehlke]

Did you ever find a resolution to this? I have the same problem w/ Vista Business. I would like to update my BIOS and have saved the file to a floppy drive, but upon boot, it's asking me to press any key to continue, which I'm unable to do. I have tried two keyboards, plugged into a USB port and PS2 port, but neither of them work. I'm assuming this has something to do w/ Vista b/c it's never happened to me on this PC or any other O/S before.