AZ: Fear & Loathing in the land of Microsoft

[Jack Simth]

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AgentZero said:
keyboard

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AgentZero said:
tried every USB port

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There's your problem. Most USB devices don't work until the machine is at least halfway booted up, as there's some fun stuff the computer has to do with drivers that can't easily be done with just the stuff in the boot sector. As near as I can tell, you need to do one of the following:
1) Borrow a keyboard from somewhere that isn't a USB keyboard, and use that for the installation process (not hard, but not always possible when a cheapskate manufacurer decides that USB is THE way to go, and doesn't include the standard ports for a keyboard and mouse).
2) Get an automatic installation CD for your chosen OS, so that no input is required at install time (difficult, but WILL work if you can arrange it)
3) Remove the hard drive you plan on installing the OS into, put it into a different machine (as the only HD), install the chosen OS on that, then put the hard drive in your machine (putting the host machine back into it's starting conditions, of course); will be buggy.

Well, there's three things for you to try, at least....