Wireless keyboard boot problem

Mr Bulbous · 12 May 2006 at 20:47

I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse for my second comp today and have come across a problem I hadn't considered!

It seems with a wireless keyboard, you cant use it until the OS has kicked in, so no use in the bios then? Its not so much of a problem for me to plug in an old wired keyboard for the few times I need to go into in the bios, but this machine is dual boot Win98SE and WinXP, as people who have dual booted know, you get a screen that shows the option of the 2 OS's before boot, and with this wireless keyboard there seems no way to use the arrow key to scroll between the OS's before XP kicks in?

If there is a workaround for this without having to have a wired keyboard plugged in all the time, could someone advise please?

Cheers.

Werewolf · 12 May 2006 at 20:56

are you sure it's not more a case of the difference in connections?

PS2 connected devices should always work in the bios/OS (no matter what OS).

USB input devices tend to only work in the Bios and an installed OS (not dos), unless you locate the option in the bios to have the USB Keyboard/Mice supported from the Bios (it tends to default to OS support, in which case they work in the Bios, but after that they don't work until the OS loads the drivers for USB keyboards/mice).
Once you've done that it should work all the time

At least that is the case with the wireless mice/keyboard i've used (mainly logitech ones, I don't know if it's the same with Bluetooth ones).

Mr Bulbous · 12 May 2006 at 21:21

That makes sense, both the wireless keyboard and mouse operate from the same USB receiver, I'll have a look in the bios and see if I can change anything.

Thanks.

ted34 · 12 May 2006 at 21:24

Werewolf i think it was you who helped me with my keyboard set. I have logitech mx5000 which is bluetooth. It would work in bios but when running memtest in dos it wouldnt. I enabled usb keyboard support in bios and all sorted. I also leave an old mouse plugged into standard port in case bluetooth crashes - logitechs software is worse than traffic wardens.

james.miller · 12 May 2006 at 21:25

both my ms and logi set work in the bios. the gf's ms set does also.

Mr Bulbous · 12 May 2006 at 22:25

Thanks Werewolf, you were right.

Found an option in the bios to support USB keyboard and mouse, can now do all I need from the wireless keyboard and mouse on this dual boot Win98/XP machine.

Thanks very much :cool: