[cavemandaveman]

selecting the hard drive as the boot device would have no effect on the next boot. I'd try booting the OpenELEC installer blindly by hitting 'ESC' then '2' a few times in sequence

Matt, thank you. I tried your suggestion again, this time it worked. THANK YOU....Am i limited to skins or any skin would work?

I have a similar problem but I'm scared I bricked my chromebox!

I followed the instructions to a T for a standalone OpenELEC setup on my Dell Chromebox.

After creating the install media on an SD card, I rebooted but nothing came up! It was a blank screen on my computer monitor (hdmi) even after waiting ~10min. I even tried to connect to a tv (hdmi) and still blank.
So I freaked out a little and shut it down and tried to boot with the recovery button held, but same blank screen at boot.

Then I tried Matt's solution by blindly hitting 'esc' and then '2' a few times, but still nothing.
I even tried inserting the recovery usb but the led on the usb drive just flashes endlessly and nothing happens!

I'd appreciate any help!