Can't do a fresh install of Windows 7.

Or maybe even just disconnect the hard drive, and see if it will boot from the DVD when no HD is connected.

DavidE said:

Can you get into your BIOS settings when booting the PC ?
You might need to do a BIOS reset.

Your specs show a Custom Build Desktop with W7 Ultimate.
Who built the PC and installed the OS ?

One of the many things that I have done is to replace the MB battery. (I once received a strange error report that made it seem like the MB had forgotten the HD configuration.) Therefore, I replaced he battery and reset the BIOS to default.

Layback Bear said:

How old is your hard drive. (WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1 120 GB)?

If it was my computer I would start with a new SSD and cables.

If this was my production computer, I would have done something like that. Actually, I did. I have previously replaced this computer with a newer model. Even that replacement has been replaced by an even newer model. The Win 7 computer that is giving me trouble is a backup computer that I use to test new software just to make sure that software doesn't screw up my production computer. As such, I'd rather not spend any significant amount of money on it. However, if I put a dollar value on my time, it probably would have been cheaper to replace the computer. Anyway, this is a challenge!

DavidE said:

Or maybe even just disconnect the hard drive, and see if it will boot from the DVD when no HD is connected.

I like that idea! I'm going to try it and will post back.

This problem gets more curious by the moment!

As suggested, I disconnected the HDD and attempted to boot from the DVD drive. Here are the results:

1. Commercial OEM Windows XP CD:
Boots correctly

2. Bootable CD (with utilities originally burned on this computer)
Boots correctly...
...but accessing the utilities on this disk requires using the keyboard arrow keys to navigate. They don't work.

3. Bootable Win 7 DVD (This is my original Win 7 DVD. I had to download it when I upgraded from XP to Win 7)
-Boots correctly in another computer
-Will not boot on on my problem computer
-The DVD can be correctly read from Windows Explorer

4. New Bootabe Win 7 DVD (a few days ago this ISO was downloaded and burned to a DVD on the problem computer)
-Boots correctly in another computer
-Will not boot on on my problem computer
-The DVD can be correctly read from Windows Explorer

Therefore, it seems that I have two problems:
1. My problem computer will boot CDs but not DVDs
-I don't have a commercially produced bootable DVD to see if that would work.
-There is an EFI folder on both Win 7 DVDs. My computer does not have a UEFI BIOS. Is that the reason? If so, how can I make the DVD non EFI?

2. Once booted into a non-windows environment the keyboard keys doesn't work.
-The only thing I can think of is that there is some BIOS setting that was reset when I restored the default BIOS settings and that caused the keyboard to be inactive before Windows loads. I searched through all the BIOS setting and didn't see anything that would be obvious to enable the keyboard (it's a USB keyboard)

Any ideas?

Can you try using a PS2 keyboard ?
You would need to have or borrow a PS2 keyboard, and have a PS2 keyboard port on the MB.

Your specs show
Motherboard AMI MS-6380E 1.0
I couldn't find anything to help for that MB, so i can't find a manual that might explain BIOS settings.
Did you check BIOS settings for something like Enable Legacy USB devices ?

Try Speccy and make sure it shows the same motherboard as your specs.
A portable version is available here:
Speccy - Builds

DavidE said:

Can you try using a PS2 keyboard ?
You would need to have or borrow a PS2 keyboard, and have a PS2 keyboard port on the MB.

Your specs show
Motherboard AMI MS-6380E 1.0
I couldn't find anything to help for that MB, so i can't find a manual that might explain BIOS settings.
Did you check BIOS settings for something like Enable Legacy USB devices ?

Try Speccy and make sure it shows the same motherboard as your specs.
A portable version is available here:
Speccy - Builds

Problem 1:
Yup! That did it. The BIOS has an option called "USB Legacy Support". The options were "disabled" (default), "No Mice" and "all Devices". I set it to All Devices and now the keyboard works in the non-windows environment.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!

I'm still left with problem #2 - A DVD will not boot in the DVD drive but a CD will.
I've been searching the net for terms like "booting UEFI DVD in a non-UEFI system". So far I haven't found anything that relates to my issue. Still looking.

Thank-you again!

dsscottage said:

-There is an EFI folder on both Win 7 DVDs. My computer does not have a UEFI BIOS. Is that the reason? If so, how can I make the DVD non EFI?

I don't think the EFI folder on the DVD is the problem.
I have an EFI folder on my Win 7 Pro x64 w/SP1 disc, and it boots my Legacy MBR PC fine.

Just guessing, but i would look through BIOS settings, especially anything about Boot options.
The Bios reset changed one setting that you fixed, maybe there is another setting that needs to be changed.

Here is a pic of what i see on my Win 7 DVD in Windows Explorer.

DavidE said:

dsscottage said:

-There is an EFI folder on both Win 7 DVDs. My computer does not have a UEFI BIOS. Is that the reason? If so, how can I make the DVD non EFI?

I don't think the EFI folder on the DVD is the problem.
I have an EFI folder on my Win 7 Pro x64 w/SP1 disc, and it boots my Legacy MBR PC fine.

Just guessing, but i would look through BIOS settings, especially anything about Boot options.
The Bios reset changed one setting that you fixed, maybe there is another setting that needs to be changed.

Here is a pic of what i see on my Win 7 DVD in Windows Explorer.

My disk folder structure is exactly the same.

I managed to get to another computer that does not have UEFI and the disk does boot on that computer.

Therefore, there has to be something in my configuration that is allowing a CD to boot but not a DVD.

Out of curiosity I took AddRAMs suggestion in the second post. I downloaded minitool partition and burned it to a DVD rather than a CD and it boots correctly.

Just to frustrate myself further, I copied the boot folder from the minitool partition DVD and all the files & folders from the Win 7 DVD (except Boot & EFI) and burned them to a DVD - didn't work.

I also looked at my BIOS again and can't see anything that looks like it might enable DVD booting.

My BIOS setup program is AMIBIOS Version 3.31a. I searched for a manual and found a few that were designed for other systems. Their settings were similar to mine but not exact. Even so, I didn't see anything that looked like it would solve the DVD boot issue.

You could try creating a USB flash stick and see if that will boot / install Windows.
You need at least a 4 GB flash stick, and nothing on it that needs to be kept !

USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create