F8 key problem on setup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell
  • Start date Start date
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Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell

Hi everyone! I'm trying to reinstall XP home on my husband's computer.
Here's the catch: after reading the agreement, you either press F8 to agree
or escape to exit.

No matter what I try, the F8 key *does not work*, And this doesn't happen
with one XP Home disk, but two of them! Obviously there's some wort of boot
up keyboard thing going on.... has anyone seen thhis before and can anyone
help?

And the sooner the better, because my husband without a computer is VERY
WHIIIIIIIIINY! :-)

Thanks!

Carmen
 
Does your computer have an F Lock button. If so, you might need to press
that button to put the keyboard's F Keys into a 'normal' state.

Once you do that, pressing the F8 key should work as intended.
 
F8 has nothing to do with accessing the installation procces of xp.Simply
install
xp cd,boot to xp cd(you may need to adjust for this in the BIOS,boot device
priority or similiar),once booting to xp cd,at menu screen select,install
xp,new
copy,delete the partition,create one,then xp formats and installs
automatically.
Chk with comp mfg on hot to access BIOS,or owners manual,ususlly tap the F1/
Help key at starting computer,as you do with F8 for accessing "safe-mode".
 
You press F8 to accept the EULA. Without doing this, setup will not
continue. So YES, the F8 key is important.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell said:
Hi everyone! I'm trying to reinstall XP home on my husband's computer.
Here's the catch: after reading the agreement, you either press F8 to
agree or escape to exit.

No matter what I try, the F8 key *does not work*, And this doesn't happen
with one XP Home disk, but two of them! Obviously there's some wort of
boot up keyboard thing going on.... has anyone seen thhis before and can
anyone help?

And the sooner the better, because my husband without a computer is VERY
WHIIIIIIIIINY! :-)

Thanks!

Carmen
Click to expand...

Borrow the keyboard from a different computer and try that.
 
Andrew said:
F8 has nothing to do with accessing the installation procces of xp.
Click to expand...

This patently absurd statement makes it very clear that you have never
installed any recent Microsoft operating systems. If you had, you would
know that pressing <F8> is how one agrees to the terms of the EULA,
thereby letting the installation proceed.

Please stop posting incorrect information; there's a slim chance that
someone who knows even less about computers than you might actually
believe something you post.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Carmen said:
Hi everyone! I'm trying to reinstall XP home on my husband's computer.
Here's the catch: after reading the agreement, you either press F8 to agree
or escape to exit.

No matter what I try, the F8 key *does not work*, And this doesn't happen
with one XP Home disk, but two of them! Obviously there's some wort of boot
up keyboard thing going on.... has anyone seen thhis before and can anyone
help?
Click to expand...

Are you using a USB keyboard? If so, did you first enable Legacy USB
Support (allows rudimentary USB support prior to loading Windows and the
normal USB device drivers)? If not, you may have to borrow (or even
purchase a cheap) PS/2 keyboard to use during the initial installation.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Borrow the keyboard from a different computer and try that.
Click to expand...

you do need F8 to work to agree to the End User Licens Agreement
(which i always mentaly say no to), the windows boot menu (accesible
by hiting F8 when windows tries to load) has absalutly nothing to do
with the XP setup process:

Things to do:
Try pressing the decline button, to see if that works.
If it dose work, then most likly the keyborads F8 key is broken and
the keyborad needs replacing.
If it dose not work then the keyborad is ither not connected properly
or not suported by the instaler, as Alan Smith said, if it is a USB
keyborad (which i personaly think is usless) then you will need to
enable legacy support i the BIOS then, but that is no sure fire way to
make sure it works.
Nearly all PC’s are equiped with PS/2 ports, try and get a PS/2
keyboard, this is the best option, as PS/2 is supported right the way
though from DOS 1 to Windows XP.

My Opinion:
USB keyborads and mice are pointless, mice and keyborads alike do not
need super high transfer speeds, the PS/2 ports where desighned for
mice and keyborads alone, why not use them? Plus not all OS’s suport
USB keyboards, especily when installing the OS, where as PS/2 is
standared, and as such any PS/2 keyborad dose not need any special
driver to work.
 
You need to use f8 and you can't decline the EULA
for a manual install.

You can use the tools in the deploy.cab file on the source disk to create an
unattended script file though.

This is not a super difficult task, but it is by no means an easy task for
the someone who has never don it before.

If you do try using setup manager a good tipfor a single install is to take
the text file created by this utility, rename it winnt.sif, and copy it to a
floppy. Pop the floppy in the drive right after the blue install screen
loads and you will be golden.

But the most obvious answer is usually correct, look for an f-lock key, or
use a new keyboard.
 
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