usb sux. The pc BIOS sux. USB is a hack, a workaround added on but
not fully supported until a driver is loaded. Catch-22, "you can't get there
from here" The ps/2 keyboard port is the canonical keyboard port.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Maybe you could get a BIOS update to support usb
during the boot process, or maybe a newer box (send the old one to me for testing)