Hi Roxanna,
That's not the system BIOS, that's WinXP's recovery options. If it is
unresponsive to the arrow keys, you may need to replace the keyboard. It may
also be that USB support for the board has been disabled in the BIOS (if you
are using that type rather than PS/2), and you need to reenable it. This
could be a sign of a dead CMOS battery (forgetting basic settings), but it
could also be a corrupted OS in which case a repair installation may be
needed.
When the system first starts (the POST), do you see the configuration data
or a manufacturer splash screen? If the screen, hit escape to see the data.
You need to hit the key to "enter setup" - which key that is is defined by
the manufacturer. If this works, then the problem is not the keyboard. Your
next step would be to check the settings here to see if it is set for USB
devices to be enabled at startup, as this may be why it isn't working at the
recovery screen.
Otherwise, you may need to load the WinXP CD and boot the system with it to
run the Recovery Console.
HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654
From the command prompt, you would run chkdsk c: /r. If prompted for the
location of autochk.exe, use C:\Windows\system32. If this routine fails to
bring the computer back to normal (it may take quite some time, do not
interrupt the process), then follow the steps in the link below to do a
repair installation:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
--
Best of Luck,
Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
Windows help -
www.rickrogers.org