I recently bought an Asus M599X-EVO mobo and installed the latest BIOS (version 1208). I’m running 12.1 very successfully, but there is a problem when booting. The mouse and keyboard (cordless USB Logitech) work fine inside BIOS but after that when the startup menu appears I’m unable to select anything and the boot goes ahead with the highlighted top line option. At some point in the bootup, mouse and keyboard start working again.
It’s the same with (for example) Partedmagic, where no selection is possible. Also with an Opensuse installation DVD, where I can’t actually select “installation” because it’s on the second line of the menu.
I have had this occur before and found that pressing the space bar and arrow keys during the boot process can wake up their operation. You can do it so often that the BIOS thinks the keyboard has a stuck key, so keep key presses short and you should move back and forth between a couple of different keys. It seems to work most of the time for me and worth a try.
Thanks for the tip James. However, it doesn’t work for me. I’ve emailed Asus customer services but judging by comments I’ve seen, I don’t hold out much hope of a solution. If I get one, I’ll post it here.
Its a strange problem and in my case its a UEFI BIOS on an ASUS motherboard and an Intel i7 2600K. If the thing was not the fastest computer I ever had, I would not put up with it, but its curious yours is also an ASUS brand. I have found using the up and down arrow keys most effective and ever so often, the keyboard works without doing a thing but there is a better than 50% chance it will not work. I have two bash scripts I use that help set the boot without selecting anything from grub you might find useful here:
Both are intended to work with Grub Legacy and not grub 2 targeted for openSUSE 12.2, our next openSUSE release. Good luck in finding a solution which you must share with us here if you get one.
Well I managed to exchange a couple of emails with an ASUS tech person in Taiwan. The only suggestion I got was to clear the CMOS - which didn’t solve the problem. I asked if upgrading the BIOS would effect things. No reply for 3 days and no useful ideas from the ASUS mobo forum.
Have now installed a Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 and everything worked first time. The ASUS mobo is going back to the shop.