New Installation Windows XP

IanB001 · 10 Oct 2010 at 14:06

Good afternoon

I am attempting to reinstall Microsoft Windows XP Professional on an older computer I have for the kids.

I'v set the BIOS to boot from the CDROM drive first followed by the HDD.
I pop the Windows install disc in the drive and reboot the computer.
As soon as I am prompted I pound on the keyboard to boot from the CDROM drive but the computer still boots into a very old installation of Windows XP on the HDD.

The keyboard works fine as I can type with it on the computer and it also recognises me hitting the delete key to enter the BIOS.

The CDROM drive works as when I'm in Windows it can read the Windows install disc just fine.

Any siggestions on what could be happening here?

Thank you.
Ian.

J.B · 10 Oct 2010 at 14:25

Is it a USB keyboard?

IanB001 · 10 Oct 2010 at 14:51

Hi J.B. Yeah, I've got a cheap and chearful USB keyboard. I did try it with a USB-PS/2 adaptor but with no luck. Infact, with the PS/2 adaptor I couldn't even type anything in Notepad, there was no response at all.

Do you think I ought to pick up a cheapo PS/2 keyboard?

If it was the keyboard though surely it wouldn't have recognised the Delete key when I held it down to enter the BIOS?

I've just tried disconnecting the HDD completely and the system boots from the CDROM, but as there was no HDD attached I couldn't install Windows :rolleyes:

.

Weird.

Swordfish · 10 Oct 2010 at 14:53

Jump into the BIOS and make sure USB legacy support is enabled.

mame · 10 Oct 2010 at 15:24

I installed windows 7 onto my dads PC a few weeks ago. We had the exact same thing. Then I noticed that the DVD drive didn't even show in the BIOS. In the end I plugged my DVD drive in and all was good. Once Windows was installed we were about to nip up to overclockers to get a replacement but found that the DVD drive worked fine in windows as you describe so it's been left as it is and everything works fine.

IanB001 · 10 Oct 2010 at 15:27

Well done Swordfish!!

At some point in the past I obviously disabled that particular BIOS setting. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

With it turned on I was able to hit a key and boot from the CDROM drive. The HDD has now been repartitioned and is currently formatting ready for a nice new fresh install of Windows XP Pro.

Thank you.

Swordfish · 10 Oct 2010 at 17:43

IanB001 said:
Well done Swordfish!!

At some point in the past I obviously disabled that particular BIOS setting. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

With it turned on I was able to hit a key and boot from the CDROM drive. The HDD has now been repartitioned and is currently formatting ready for a nice new fresh install of Windows XP Pro.

Thank you.

Your welcome.

It's funny how some times it's a simple answer to a puzzling problem.