Heres to a solution to a problem I’ve been pondering upon today when building my new PC running WinXP home- a boot error from POST after recovering it from an accidental power off during formating on the initial install. Strangely, I’ve always boot from WinXp CD without much hitch as it IS infact, bootable. But this dang NTLDR missing message keeps appearing & the system just gets in & endless boot “n” loop thing without initializing install. I’ve tried what any sane person would do, creating bootable discs from MS webby to boot, even NTFS formated the corrupted formatted space 2 times as a secondary slave on my other comps, but to no avail, the message keeps appearing….
Till with a flick of luck & a random thought which flashed through my very much stressed & desperate mind, after looking at my old computer viewsonic keyboard chucked in a corner of my room. “Mmm maybe the USB drivers for the wireless keyboard are not loaded” Though trival & stupid, well at 12midnight I still trying to solve the problem, (as I said, I was desperate!) How can a new PC give so much problems? & its not even due to a hardware malfunction… Plugged in the ps2 keyboard… &that little method actually worked!- using a ps2 keyboard! 😯
I see, I see, see the problem starts AFTER post, the keyboard (any type, including wireless) will most of the time function during POST where you can access the setup, bootmenu, etc, but after that when its booting some mobos actually “switch off” the IRQ to the USB when checking for newly installed devices & assigning new IRQ numbers to PCI slots, including Firewire & USB. In other words, I can’t “press any key to start CD install” AT that particular point when its performing the IRQ check. Though the keyboard seems to be working with lights & so, but at that point, its only powered by the port itself, not accepting any inputs. So the conclusion is NEVER use USB wireless keyboards & mice when installing or running your PC for the first time. Instead, use the wired trusty ps2 ones, then switch to the USB wireless ones when you get the OS up & running with the poper drivers installed. USB keyboards may work on the first attempt for me, but in this rather funny situation, the second reinstall attempt & is indeed unique.
Well, may this be a learning experience for me & possiblity anybody who reads this post. Cheers! 
