win xp will not find my usb keyboard at startup

Question

My windows xp computer will not recognize my usb keyboard on startup. I get stuck at the login screen. It will recognize my usb mouse. The keyboard is good because it allows me into the bios and also to press f8 to enter safe mode. However even in safe mode, the keyboard is not recognized. I have tried two different models of usb keyboard. I have also tried switching usb port on the computer.

any ideas on how to get this fixed?

Solution

From my experience, this is default behaviour in XP. Unlike newer versions of Windows, XP doesn't recognize USB hardware and install drivers quickly. It can take a while to install drivers at startup, even sometimes it doesn't at all until you log in and instruct it to do so.

So in this case, it makes sense recognizing mouse while not recognizing keyboard. You should find a PS/2 keyboard and log in, and connect your USB keyboard then install driver.

Also, some older motherboards don't come with 'USB keyboard: Enabled' setting. You have to enable it in BIOS. Depending on the motherboard, you can do it with USB keyboard though. ( It allows you to press F2 or Del at POS screen. )

Comments

[tuj]

ok, I will track down a ps/2 keyboard and try that.

[Prasanna]

there are converters to convert USB to PS2 and vice versa... They are inexpensive to try