Reformat problems

Rev

I've just bought a second hand dell 5150 and it came with vista installed. I want to put XP back on it (no reason besides personal preference). Only problem is there's no PS2 port for the keyboard, only USB and it doesn't detect the keyboard until windows loads. So I can't enter the bios, can't change the boot priority to boot from the CD to get XP installed.

Anyone have any ideas how I can get around this?

Thanks.

albertross_2

It should detect the usb keyboard, are you sure you are hitting del (or F2?) quickly enough?

Rev

It says hit F2 for set-up, F12 for boot menu, nothing happens when I press either.

I restarted before windows loads and the usual options come up, safe mode, start windows normally, ect. But I can't select any because it's not seeing the keyboard. I just had to wait until it counted down and started normally.

Tried restarting a few times, I had thought I wasn't pressing F2 quickly enough but no change, it just boots to vista.

albertross_2

Have you tried a different usb port? Is it a wireless keyboard?

Rev

No, it's a wired keyboard. Haven't tried another port lol, never even thought of that.

I'll give it a go now.

Rev

Just tried several different USB ports, no change.

albertross_2

Did you try all of them, including the front ones? And holding the F2 down half a sec after power on, when the press F2 comes up?

Rev

Yeah I did. It's detected as soon as windows boots, I have tested it in notepad to make sure it's not the kayboard. It just wont detect it during boot.

albertross_2

Apart from trying another keyboard, I am out of ideas. You could remove the bios battery to reset the system to bios defaults, in case someone has turned off usb kb emulation

It should work btw, it isn't a "feature" of Dells. Done it myself on the same model, but vaguely remember having to try a diff port.

Rev

How safe is it to do that? Can I do irreparable damage? Or is it just a case of take it out, put it back in, no harm done besides the reset?

albertross_2

Make sure you turn it off first at the mains first, and don't walk up and down the carpet (static).

Provided you don't stick a screwdriver through the motherboard, it won't do any damage.

Take it out, wait a minute, stick it back in.