I am running on an MSI K8T Neo motherboard, AMD 64 3200+. I have two 10k RMP SATA western digital Raptors (36 gig) and one 200 gig IDE for storage.

Now when you want to install sata/raid drivers with Windows XP, you need to put in your motherboard manufacturer's floppy and press F6 near the start of the installation to load up the drivers. Of course, pressing F6 on my system doesn't do anything at all for some reason. The keyboard(s) work perfectly in windows and bios and wherever else, but not for when I need it the most - windows installation. I've even had two keyboards plugged in at the same time (USB and PS2), tapping F6 on both of them, and I can't get it to work.

It's worked in the past though. I have no idea why or what the conditions were (I was randomly plugging things in and out, etc.)... does anyone know why I might be having this issue? Motherboard settings, installed hardware, etc.?

Thanks in advance,

Nick

Get yourself a new keyboard a brand new keyboard and try that if that don't work then it could be a bad usbport or a bad ps2 port.
Other then that I need to see what it doing. Just like talking to a auto shop guy about your car like saying my car making a noise the person needs to see it in person to see what it really going on.

That's the problem - one of the keyboards is a brand new USB Logitech, and the other is the same exact model, only a year older. I've taken keyboards off of old junkers, and they don't work either. The USB ports and PS2 ports work fine in absolutely every instance - except for that one moment. The computer acts as though I'm not pressing the key at all. Also, Control-Alt-Delete will reset the computer while it's waiting for the F6 key.

Weird, huh?

Thats is it logitech keyboards sucks. get some other brand like a IBM keyboard and try that.

Does F8 work before booting ? If so , I doubt the problem is with the keyboard.

Does the keyboard have any special functions on the F Keys. Some newer keyboards have special functions for each F Keys. You might need to press another button before you can press the F6 key. I would also recommend checking your BIOS to make sure that the USB ports and the PS2 Ports are actually working. Also If the ports are working try only 1 keyboard at a time and try all of the ports.

Nice.... no, really. Nice [/sarcasm] You're just trying to get him to spend his money, aren't you?

Reguardless of brands (which make no difference in control on the computer, rather, simply a change in user functionality. Basically, all keyboards are the same), the most likely problem could be a bad port. If you can boot to an OS on another machine, try the keyboards there, and see if they work. That'll single out any keyboard problems. If your keyboards work, then something with USB or PS2 is wrong (Basically, just conferming what the others have already said )

If i was trying to get him to spend his money i would of told him to buy a keyboard that is made from 100% gold.

This is like deja vu, hm, my thought is that it is a proceedural problem, like bca instead of abc. Here is the recent dialogue posted about sata driver installation with XP on another thread, never did find out the proper solution (as the fix was not posted, fershame), but you may want to have a read through and maybe check out some of the links that pertain to this delema, there might even be a clue there to jog your memory as to how you got it to work before. If nothing else its entertaining lol. It is here> http://www.geeknewz.com/board/index.php?showtopic=3539
I do not profess to understanding how this works, but I'm trying to also, so good luck and when you figure it out please be kind enough to post the solutions so others can learn esp since raid set-ups and sata hardware are becoming more common

Still on my quest for answers people can understand I went and had a look-see on the eXtremeTech.com site and found this thread on adding/changing HD's, there is some very good info here>
http://discuss.extremetech.com/extremetech/messages

I have opened a thread in eXtremeTech in regards to questions concerning XP, SATA, RAID, F6, etc. since the more I look and try to understand the more confused I am getting lol. (jk, am not near as confused as I think I am). Anyhow, here is the link to the thread so those with these sort of probs can check back and see if there is anything pertenant. Here> http://discuss.extremetech.com/extremetech/messages

Yeah you know logitech and their bad F6 keys.. that's obviously it....

Me thinks you need to press F Lock and or Num Lock keys once you have started your reboot this will enable you to use the other F keys onsome keyboards !allowing you to hit F6 & install from floppy ..