i just picked up my first mac in almost a decade, mainly due to the fact that i could run windows on it. i installed boot camp, burned the drivers cd and when i insert my windows xp disc, it loads up and then when it asks about starting the installation, it tells me to press enter but my entire keyboard does not respond so i'm basically stuck at that blue screen.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

also, any thoughts on boot camp vs. parallels?

boot camp, way better, but anyways, is your keyboard usb, or what

i had the same problem on my mini. i'm using the apple keyboard, i don't understand why my xp disc won't recognize it (server 2003 worked fine)...

the only thing i can think of is that xp isn't loading the driver needed for the keyboard. kinda stupid if it can't recognize a usb keyboard. i have vista now, but i'd like to know in case i ever decide i want to use xp.

i think it might be the drivers, since it's a non-native XP keyboard, it worked fine on my macbook, but my keyboard's built in

its not seen my pc keyboard on occasion, and all the time on my dad's old mobo... (not usb ether, they are ps2) and regular peecees.... but yea, no work around atm that i can think of

would it be possible to somehow slipstream the drivers into the installation disc? would that just be a matter of copying the disc files to your computer, adding the drivers, and then burning a new copy? i'm not quite sure where the driver files would be located on the disc though. it shouldn't be too hard to find a driver that will work with the keyboard.

I am having the exact same problem on my iMac Core Duo.

Everything works fine until XP loads the Installler XP Disk and it says "press enter" to setup XP like normal but the Apple Keyboard doent work at all.

Anybody have a workaround for this? Help appreciated thx.

Hi all,
I work at an apple store and found this thread as I needed to find a solution to the same problem as above; the keyboard refused to respond in the windows install on a MacBook Pro.

The way I got around this problem was to plug a usb keyboard into the laptop and reboot to the windows CD using Startup Disk in System Preferences.

This could have been a fluke, I don't know, but I thought i'd post incase it was some help to someone. I'm aware some people were having problems with iMac's/mini's, so perhaps the restart method was what was needed.

I'd like to know if it works for anyone else so a valid solution could be documented.

-g9

I have almost the same problem, but the solution above does not work! I am installing on to a new MacBook Pro 15". The only difference of significance may be the installation CD. It is a bootable CD with two installers on it--Windows XP Home and Professional. The CD has a dos script that it auto-launches on boot that asks which of the two systems I want to install. I am supposed to respond by typing A or B, then hitting enter. I get white letters on black background and a flashing cursor, but typing A, B or anything else doesn't seem to work--cursor keeps flashing. I tried it with the external USB keyboard and the Startup Disk setting mentioned above, but it doesn't seem to behave any differently.

Im having the same problems with my Macbook Pro ;/ When I try to install Vista, it will get stuck at the menu where it asks "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...". I found a trick which works from time to time:
After turning on the MBP, hold down the options key. Now chose to boot from CD and hit any key until the boot menu upears..it worked for me in like 3/10 times
Cheers

I had the exact same issue but found out what was going on.
It looks like it is a problem with the BIOS Extensions not detecting the keyboard if a key is "active" when they are called.

Example, hold "C" to boot to the CD drive.
DOS will not see the Keyboard unless you disconnect and reconnect it.

Real problem for Laptops.

If you specify to boot from the Startup Disk menu or can let go at the right time to boot to the CD before it actually does, then you can use your keyboard.
If you do not, then you will not.

Hopefully this will be fixed when the new Bootcamp comes out. We are certain to get a new one once Leopard goes gold.

I had the same problem (Mac book pro, 1.1.2), only at the boot.

It is possible to install windows on a fresh partition, and choose the partition with the keyboard. It is not possible to repair an installation if you screw up (likely), or to bring up the startup method screen.

The drivers are there, but loaded by windows, and it wouldn't help to add them to the installation disc, at least in my case.

Most likely, it would help to edit the boot configuration.

I had a similar problem with the mapping (latest input remapper): at the logon screen keyboard drivers were loaded but the mapping wasn't. I pressed ctrl-alt-canc on the onscreen keyboard.

Of course the problem could be solved on the hardware, but I wonder whether this is in the plans.

greetings. i want to make sure this answer gets around. i unplugged everything from the back of the computer but the keyboard. no harddrives, no printers. i even unplugged the mouse from the keyboard. only then did it work. hope no one else ever has to sweat this. have a peaceful day.