USB Keyboards

Is it possible to have a usb keyboard detected when a computer first starts...

Example of what I mean..

I have one computer setup as a dual boot WinXP and Vista.

Currently when I start that computer with the usb keyboard connected I cannot change the selection from the boot menu.
When booting Vista is automatically highlighted so if I want to use WinXP I cannot change it from Vista to XP because the keyboard hasn't been detected.

Is there a way to solve this?

 

Check through your BIOS for USB related options. You can turn them all on and try, or turn themon one by one till you find one which works. Particularly look for one called USB Emulation.

 

Yes, in the BIOS there should be an option to enable a USB Keyboard. You will probably have to use a PS2 Keyboard to get into the BIOS right now but once its set properly your USB Keyboard should work just fine as soon as you power up your machine.



edit: Note, after reading above post - be careful to look specifically for enable USB Keyboard. Depending upon the degree of sophistication of your motherboard, this option should exist and is commonly found on the PNP-page of most manufacturer's BIOS. The better boards will permit BIOS or OS as further options for enabling this. Don't just go willy-nilly flipping things around in your BIOS

 

After about 10 minutes of looking everywhere for anything closely resembling "usb keyboard support ", I was actually going to give up on this one, I even went through every single setting that was related and none related and could find absolutely nothing that would allow me to enable the usb keyboard.

Rockstar2U it was something you said in the text I quoted above (but not sure exactly what) that made me check the one obvious place I have a bad habit of ignoring.... and that one place was the "Main Menu" of the Bios setup. It was actually an option before setting the boards "defaults "...

Thanks Rockstar2U and to David Ryan for the quick replies....