XP Pro install blows away my keyboard

Background: My Dell PC came with Win ME. I installed XP Pro about a month ago to a different folder and everything was running peachy... The hard drive failed about a week ago (no big deal, my files are on my server...)

I picked up a new drive, twice the size (now 120 GB). The keyboard is still the original Dell PS/2; the mouse is USB.

The install goes along fine until I get to the point where I need to key in my license and then the keyboard is now no longer responding, not even the num lock works. The mouse still works and this is the same install CD. The keyboard does work up to that point, it's almost like it doesn't want me to key in the license.

Does anyone have any ideas? I have tried a different PS/2 keyboard without luck. I do not have a USB keyboard to try.

 

a shot in the dark...

Your original WinME installation probably had the driver for your keyboard... see if there is one on the DELL website that you can download. There may be other drivers there you will need.
Another thing you could try is using the number keys above the letters (not the number pad) Yeah I know its stretching it... but you never know

B

 

Thanks. I'm looking on Dell's site for something now also. Late last night, I found an old post on another forum site where someone had the same problem, but there were no replies. They also have the same hardware, so I wonder if it's a Dell hardware related issue. What is funny is that the keyboard works fine up to that point and then stops working, Even the num lock LED doesn't work when I hit the num lock key. I know it's not locked up because I can forward/back with the mouse, so it's limited strictly to the keyboard. The other funny thing is an older PS/2 keyboard that is pretty generic does the same exact thing, so I doubt it's the keyboard itself, probably something on the mobo that XP didn't have a problem with the first time around but does now??

 

update bios

You many need to update the bios to accept xp and the drivers.

 

Ugly. I saw something about that on the Dell site and they have two versions of the bios, one for XP and the other for "other" operating systems. Since my primary OS is Linux, I'm trying to find out if that is the real solution and if so, what will the XP bios do to my Linux install. Not to mention, I need Windows (or DOS) to create the boot floppy from the exe and it's just not running yet...

Hmmm. If that turns out to be the answer, I'll post here in case anyone else happens to run into the same error.

 

osh,

Just so you know the bios change shouldn't effect your linux install. If you can get access to another windows computer (library, kinko's, etc) maybe you can make your boot disk there.
Are we havin' fun yet?

B

 

Friends with PCs. Ahhhh, and I'm the computer geek in the bunch... LOL.

I'll be out this week, but I'll DL both bios' and create a floppy for each. (backup, backup, backup...) and then upgrade to the XP2 version and go from there. I'll let everyone on here know the results in a week.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

 

XP did the same thing with my PS/2 keyboard. Seems to me XP may not be friendly with those. Use a USB keyboard til you can get things squared away.

 

Ok, XP is still messed, but that's related to the video (nvidia).

I pulled the XPP2 bios down from Dell's site and installed that. Linux still works fine. I unplugged everything else (scanner, UPS, etc...) and proceeded to install XP. Didn't run into the problem.

My guess is I forgot to unplug the scanner before, and since it's USB, it was conflicting with the keyboard and causing the install to stop recognizing it.

Now I just gotta get this video card issue fixed...
I want to thank everyone who has pitched in here on this thread.