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tonywalker23

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 21, 2003
443
1,048
SC
heres me deal:

i have a mac pro with boot camp. when i hold option i get the normal screen that allows to chose between my mac disk and my windows disk. so when i choose windows i then go to another screen since i have both xp and vista on one hard drive.

its a black screen with white fonts, 30 secs to choose to boot into vista or an earlier version of windows etc . . . you can use the up and down arrow to select the os...


this worked fine with my mac pro with the older white kb's but now the aluminum keyboard doesnt work. once the 30 sec screen goes away and it boots into vista all is fine. its as if that dos promp looking xp/vista slection screen cant recognize the new kb's

any thoughts greatly appreciated, i dont want to have to switch kb's just to get into xp
 

mudflap

macrumors 6502a
Aug 24, 2007
532
983
Chicago
Same here

I have a Core Duo iMac that booted into Windows just fine before I hooked up the new aluminum keyboard yesterday. Even after installing the last keyboard update, the keyboard doesn't seem to be recognized early enough in the startup sequence for the option key press to even register.

I learned a neat trick. If you have an Apple Remote, hold down the MENU button in place of the option key, during startup.

Good news is, that last tip really works. Bad news is, I couldn't type anything once booted into Windows. Some of the function keys worked, but nothing else did.

I hope Apple is scrambling for a fix as we speak.
 

edonetampa

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2006
14
0
Tampa, FL
Here is the fix to the OS picker for windows!

Assuming you had XP on before you installed Vista. The boot sector in Windows stores the info for all operating systems installed on the machine. I have run into this issue all the time when upgrading customer's systems from XP home to Professional (better networking). Even reformatting the drive does not get rid of this, unless you partition, format, and then re-partition. Ughhhh!

Ok, here are the two ways to do it, one for each OS, in case someone still has this issue in XP, too.

Windows XP (home or pro) - Once you boot up, go to my computer, right-click and go to properties. You will see a tab that says advanced, click on that and go to start-up and recovery. At the top you will see a drop down that probably has XP listed. Choose with OS you have installed. Right below that you will see a line that lists time to choose OS. Un-check that box. This gives you no option at start-up, just goes straight into whatever OS you chose at the top. Note: If you had Home and upgraded to Pro, you need to choose Pro. Home will probably not work anymore after the upgrade, especially if you reformatted the drive.

Windows Vista - Right-Click on My Computer and select properties
- (In Vista you can select View System Information from the Computer window.) Follow above instructions.

Hope this helps.
 

mudflap

macrumors 6502a
Aug 24, 2007
532
983
Chicago
Thanks

Thanks,

I'll try this out. Of course, I still can't use the new keyboard with Boot Camp/XP anyway. Some of the function keys work in XP, but none of the regular keys do. I've tried reinstalling the Boot Camp 1.4 drivers twice but it does nothing.
 

CallMeTheArrow

macrumors regular
Apr 4, 2006
234
22
Same problem exists on early 2006 Intel Mac Mini (Core Duo) and was apparently never fixed. Anyone know of a fix I don't know about?
 

ThirteenXIII

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2008
842
274
Same problem exists on early 2006 Intel Mac Mini (Core Duo) and was apparently never fixed. Anyone know of a fix I don't know about?

is this for windows or osx? or simply at start up?

for windows, get the 2.1 bootcamp drivers as it should recognize the keyboard fully now.
 

enemenemuh

macrumors newbie
Oct 3, 2008
1
0
Hello guys and girls.

I have the same problem, its impossible to input boot commands.

It seems that the usb driver will be not initialized at the first bootsequence. When Mac Os X starts the led's on the keyboard lights up.

I find that weird cause infrared and bluetooth has power at the first boot sequense (the bluetoothkeyboard works) but not the usb ?!?!?

Has anyone an idea. Is there an workaround or update. I found nothing on apple's downloadpage.

Cheers
 

MissJiJiz

macrumors newbie
Mar 22, 2009
1
0
Hey everyone

I am experiencing the same problem with my 2006 intel mac mini. the brand new alum keyboard won't work at start up. what i do in order to be able to choose wether i want to boot in windows or mac is press the menu button on the apple remote. make sure that the mouse is connected directly to the mac and not through the keyboard. otherwise the mouse won't work either.

cheers
 
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