Keyboard stops working at startup

[maryfsan]

i am trying to boot into safe mode or from a CD. the problem is the screen says to Press any key to boot from CD and it won't recognize any keys I press. capslock doesn't even work at that point. i know the keyboard driver is loaded because I am able to press F2 to enter setup.

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

Being able to press f2 during startup doesn't mean the driver is loaded correctly. every motherboard has a different settings for this. but try to find something along the lines of
motherboard/keyboard BIOS or OS set to bios
or usb legacy support. set to on.

As a last resort you can always revert to a PS2 keyboard and mouse.

 

[WR2]

Does your motherboard have the PS2 keyboard / mouse connectors?
I've seen systems where you have to set BIOS options to use a USB keyboard as default.

 

[maryfsan]

Does your motherboard have the PS2 keyboard / mouse connectors?
I've seen systems where you have to set BIOS options to use a USB keyboard as default.

Oh, I thought if it recognized F2/F8 that meant the keyboard was OK. i'm stumped. after starting I can't even get numlock to light up, just like its dead.

my BIOS does not have that option. i will try to get a PS2 keyboard and see what happens.

is there a way to boot from Cd without the "press any key" prompt. it won't recognize any keys and then goes into the "windows did not start successfully" screen, where it times out again because i can't choose anything else....
Thanks.