randomfrequency.net

Since I searched for hours before finding the solution to this problem I ran into, I’m posting it so that maybe someone else can benefit.

I was having problems with Windows so I decided to reinstall. It’s a dual-boot system with Gentoo Linux and I had just put in a new graphics card and a new wireless card. I figured, good as time as any to reinstall and get a clean system. So in goes my Dell Windows install CD and I reboot. Everything looks peachy initially until I get to this screen:

Windows XP Home Edition Setup

Welcome to Setup.

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft(R)
Windows(R) XP to run on your computer.

* To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER.

* To repair a Windows XP installation using
   Recovery Console, press R.

* To quite Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Pressing ENTER did not work, nor did any other button. Several reboots, several different tries, nothing worked. It just sat there, frozen, not doing anything.

Having no clue what the problem might be, I tried a number of things: Windows Update to make sure things were clean before trying to reinstall; deleted the Windows and MBR partitions using Gentoo’s fdisk; tried booting from both the hard-drive based installer and the CD, using various boot orders; looked into restoring the system to using NTLDR instead of GRUB, only to find out that would require me to use the “press R for Repair” option that wasn’t working.

After a nice long nap, I did some more searching and FINALLY found something that seemed useful. Someone had a similar problem and it turned out Windows wasn’t recognizing the keyboard. I have a USB mouse and USB keyboard, and the mouse is one of those 5 button Kensington deals. I figured I’d try unplugging that to see if it worked. It did.

So, if you get to the “set up Windows” screen and no buttons get it going, try hitting Caps Lock or Num Lock to see if they do anything. If they don’t, then maybe your keyboard isn’t being recognized—and the mouse may just be the culprit.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 3:32 am and is filed under Unsorted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.