System will not boot from DVD Drive while Hard Drive is hooked up

[Ricochetty]

Hi all, this is my first time posting here and I'm having what seems to be a really weird problem. There may be a really easy answer that I'm just overlooking.

I just built a new system for a friend and I'm having an odd problem that will not let me boot from a DVD drive while the hard drive is hooked up. If I take away power from the hard drive, the computer will boot from dvd and try to install the operating system, though that's obviously useless without a hard drive. Also, I am seeing the motherboard splash screen, but I have no option to go to bios. I looked in the mb book and it said DEL, though that doesn't bring me to bios either. So, I have no way to get to bios and i think the computer is trying to exclusively boot from a blank hard drive?

Thanks for any help guys. I tried searching and this forum had a lot of similar hits, though nothing quite like this problem.

 

[RetiredChief]

Try this
first as soon as you turn the computer on start hitting the Del key, keep hitting should get a beep, possibly a keyboard error which often brings up the Bios.
If that does not work the try the following:
. Space bar repeately (looking for a key board error).
. Try F1 and F2.

 

[Ricochetty]

Try this
first as soon as you turn the computer on start hitting the Del key, keep hitting should get a beep, possibly a keyboard error which often brings up the Bios.
If that does not work the try the following:
. Space bar repeately (looking for a key board error).
. Try F1 and F2.

Tried mashing the Del key, and the f2/f8 keys, have not tried f1 nor space bar and I can't work on it again till tomorrow. Hopefully it is something as simple as this. Note, the keyboard I am using is a usb keyboard. Should I switch to a ps2?

 

[RetiredChief]

Yes, Depending on the MB it may not recoginze the Usb KB - Probably the problem.. I have to switch my keyboard to get into Bios. Just use one of the USB->ps2 adaptors for keyboard.

 

[Ricochetty]

Best answer selected by Ricochetty.