Vista Boot Manager wont respond to my keyboard

I have dual boot with XP & Vista... Vista is set as the detault OS, so it is
highlighted by default.

However, I can't choose XP using my arrow keys, it doesn't respond to my
keyboard. I can't even press Enter to load Vista immediately, I have to wait
for the countdown to finish to load Vista.

Is it safe to use VistaBootPRO to change my default OS to XP to load XP? Or
does this mean my XP partition is corrupt, useless?

I used Vista Ultimate UPGRADE to do a Clean Install on another partition
(D). XP resides on C partition. Both are on the same hard disk, however.

Help needed, I don't want to completely mess up the system by doing
something stupid.

Maj wrote:
> I have dual boot with XP & Vista... Vista is set as the detault OS, so it is
> highlighted by default.
>
> However, I can't choose XP using my arrow keys, it doesn't respond to my
> keyboard. I can't even press Enter to load Vista immediately, I have to wait
> for the countdown to finish to load Vista.
>
> Is it safe to use VistaBootPRO to change my default OS to XP to load XP? Or
> does this mean my XP partition is corrupt, useless?
>
> I used Vista Ultimate UPGRADE to do a Clean Install on another partition
> (D). XP resides on C partition. Both are on the same hard disk, however.
>
> Help needed, I don't want to completely mess up the system by doing
> something stupid.

VistaBoot Pro won't hurt anything. Give it a try. It can make XP the
default OS, so you can get into XP.

I'm not at all sure it will make the keyboard responsive, though. IF
you're using a USB keyboard, do you have USB Legacy Devices enabled in
your computer's BIOS? That might be necessary to get USB devices to be
recognized before the OS (with its USB drivers) is launched.

Maj <Maj@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Help needed, I don't want to completely mess up the system by doing
> something stupid.

sounds like your issue is better helped by a mac.

you can't mess up a Mac machine since all those errors have been
engineered out of the system.

learn more here:

http://www.apple.com/getamac/whichmac.html

Ron Miller <millerDOT90@osu.edu> wrote:

> > Help needed, I don't want to completely mess up the system by doing
> > something stupid.
>
> VistaBoot Pro won't hurt anything. Give it a try. It can make XP the
> default OS, so you can get into XP.
>
> I'm not at all sure it will make the keyboard responsive, though. IF
> you're using a USB keyboard, do you have USB Legacy Devices enabled in
> your computer's BIOS? That might be necessary to get USB devices to be
> recognized before the OS (with its USB drivers) is launched.

why would you need to make sure "legacy" devices is enabled?

the Mac OS just works with any USB device you connect.

Oh! you are still dealing with a Windows machine. Ah... sorry!

>> you can't mess up a Mac machine since all those errors have been
>> engineered out of the system.

Steve:

Apparently, Apple disagrees with you. Read the following to learn about
kernel panics

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227

"CZ" <CZ@no99spam.com> wrote:

> >> you can't mess up a Mac machine since all those errors have been
> >> engineered out of the system.
>
> Steve:
>
> Apparently, Apple disagrees with you. Read the following to learn about
> kernel panics
>
> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227

did you happen to look at the date on that article? guess not, it's 2
years old! catch a clue.

Re: Macs have a BSOD like "feature" called a kernel panic:

Following is dated Oct 12, 2006 and is from an iMac Core 2 Dual user:

A MacInTouch Reader writes:
"I was away for a while and when I return, there is a semi-transparent gray
text box on my screen saying something like my computer has crashed and I
must hold the power button to restart my computer now. Kbd, mouse has no
response. Never saw that error before. After restart, system asked if I want
to send an error report to Apple.
Anyone had that problem/dialog box before?"

The dialog box you saw is reporting a kernel panic - something going wrong
with the system at a very low level. Most KPs are hardware related
(especially if they spontaneously appear on a historically stable machine)
and most hardware KPs seem to be associated with failing RAM. The OS disc
that came with your machine, unless it's fairly old, should include a
diagnostic tool that will perform a fairly thorough hardware test. It's not
the be-all/end-all, but a good first thing to try.

"CZ" <CZ@no99spam.com> wrote:

> Re: Macs have a BSOD like "feature" called a kernel panic:

you actually mean UNIX has a low level hardware test, that reports
hardware errors. In this case, a guy had some bad ram, but it didn't
have anything to do with the OS.

> Following is dated Oct 12, 2006 and is from an iMac Core 2 Dual user:
>
> A MacInTouch Reader writes:
> "I was away for a while and when I return, there is a semi-transparent gray
> text box on my screen saying something like my computer has crashed and I
> must hold the power button to restart my computer now. Kbd, mouse has no
> response. Never saw that error before. After restart, system asked if I want
> to send an error report to Apple.
> Anyone had that problem/dialog box before?"
>
> The dialog box you saw is reporting a kernel panic - something going wrong
> with the system at a very low level. Most KPs are hardware related
> (especially if they spontaneously appear on a historically stable machine)
> and most hardware KPs seem to be associated with failing RAM. The OS disc
> that came with your machine, unless it's fairly old, should include a
> diagnostic tool that will perform a fairly thorough hardware test. It's not
> the be-all/end-all, but a good first thing to try.

See, it wasn't a problem with OSX. OSX is rock solid and generally
doesn't have any of the issues Vista is generating on a minute by minute
basis. Microsoft tried to write their own OS and failed. Apple built an
OS that has a long, more battle tested history than what Microsoft
offers.

OSX works, Vista doesn't, it's plain to see.

>> OSX works, Vista doesn't, it's plain to see.

Mark:

Vista works beautifully for me in three setups.
Absolutely, no complaints.

"CZ" <CZ@no99spam.com> wrote:

> Mark:
>
> Vista works beautifully for me in three setups.
> Absolutely, no complaints.

Great! others need your kind of luck!