Windows 7 - USB keyboard not working at boot.

I've run into an old problem when trying to reinstall windows 7, when I put the CD in and alter the BIOS to boot from CD, I get to the screen saying "Press any key to boot from CD" or something like that.
I've got a logitech G15 keyboard and a Microsoft media keyboard, both are USB, when I press them there is no response and it boots from the harddisk. I've had this problem ever since I installed Windows XP, first I thought it was a keyboard issue, but then I got the G15 and the problem persisted. Since then I've replaced the motherboard, PSU, infact I think I've changed every single component, but the problem persist. Anyone have an idea of what is causing this? I'm forced to dig into the old storage at work for old PS/2 keyboards every time I'm installing a new OS

PS: The keyboards both work perfectly in BIOS, after booting an OS and when the installation disk has booted. Just in that place in between where you need to press buttons to either boot from various media or skip disk checks etc.

Hello Flashist,

In your BIOS, doublecheck to make sure that you have a "USB Keyboard Support" type option enabled.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

In the BIOS I found

USB support - enabled
USB legacy support - enabled

are one of these the option you were talking about?

Should be. Do you only have one keyboard connected? If both, then it may be causing a conflict at boot.

well I've got two at the moment, but the other is PS/2 which I was forced to used because of this problem, so the problem was there before I attached a second

Strange. I'm not sure why it does not recognize it at boot like that.

Not every bios supports a USB keyboard during the “pre windows” phase. And if it does, it may have to be plugged into the first USB port, in order for it to be used.


The way to test this is to plug your USB keyboard into USB slot #1 (if you can't find that documented anywhere, just try them all one by one) and see if you can get into the bios, and move around the menus.


If you can, then you have found the solution, if you can not, then your bios does not support booting via a USB keyboard, and you must use the old school ports.

Like I said in the post I do get into BIOS, but I will try to test all the plugs. I find it unlikely that the BIOS wouldn't support it, because it's a pretty new motherboard and clearly not designed for PS/2 plugs as it only has one mouse/keyboard PS/2, not on for each

I've had a quick read of the manual, and there isn't anything there about specific sockets for a USB keyboard. However, I would try to see if it works when plugged into either of the two sockets next to the PS/2 port.

I've seen this with some USB keyboards before.

When I looked into it I found that it was a KB specific related issue as opposed to anything I could set in the BIOS. The solution is to temporarily make the optical drive into the sole bootable device - or attach another KB on an adhoc basis as the OP states he's done.