B747-400
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 230; Flight Crew Total 22900; Flight Crew Type 380
Human-Machine Interface
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft; Human Factors
During cockpit setup; the route was uploaded to the FMC; then loaded; activated and executed.  During first waypoint/route check; there were two route discontinuities and missing waypoints (30S63 and 15N42).  After a short discussion; we deleted the entire route from the FMC; and requested another route upload.  The second route was again loaded; activated and executed; with the same two discontinuities and missing waypoints.  We then tried to manually enter the route names (30S63 and 15N42); but the FMC message was; 'Not in database' and we could not enter the [waypoints].We tried to enter the waypoint by the short Lat/Long criteria (S30E163 and N15W142); but the FMC would not accept those either.  Finally the FMC accepted the waypoints by entering the entire Lat/Long (S3000.0E16300.0 and N1500.0W14200.0).  We individually and collectively checked the courses and distances against the OFP; and then departed.  Dispatch was notified via SAT phone once we were in cruise; and they passed on to Maintenance.  At first we thought that the route uploads were corrupted; but later figured that it was an FMC database problem; since the FMC did not recognize the waypoint name.  The process took about 10-15 minutes to troubleshoot and resolve.
B747-400 Captain reported difficulty loading certain waypoints into the FMC on a flight departing YSSY.