Keyboard power off; cannot get boot menu

Hi. I am running Win2k 5.00.2195, service pack 4. I need to flash the bios on my Abit KD-7 RAID mother board, but on boot up when the text start up screen tells me to press F8 for boot options my keyboard is off (it has an LED back light which is lit during the hardware check but turns off when the bios utility screen appears).
I thought maybe it was because I am using a USB keyboard, but the same thing happens when plugged into the PS/2 port.

So, boot looks like this:
-video card detected (kb light on)
-memory scan, device check (kb light on)
-Highpoint Technologies BIOS Setting Utility screen (kb light off)
-text Win2K starting screen (kb light off)*
- "pretty" Win2K startup screen (kb light off)
-windows started (kb light on)

*this is where I need the kb so I can press F8
Thanks.

 

****...just threw away my old keyboard. Guess I'll have to "borrow" one from work...
I'll let you know how it goes.