"That's rough" is about right. Things be missing.
Help me out here. Your system was working, then stopped seeing the input devices for as yet unknown reasons. You've tried both ps2 and usb keyboards and mice but your XP installation doesn't see any of them, nor does the XP install CD. But the dell driver CD does see them.
Diagnostics seeing them I could understand, as diags often talk directly to the interfaces. That seems to suggest the devices and ports are okay, but something between is wrong (both with ps2 and USB). Very odd. (Certainly with someone else reporting a USB issue just a bit ago.) Does your system have an easy way of clearing its CMOS settings? Battery or jumper?
I'm lost with this part:
Quote:
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now I can't boot to safe mode because setup wants to run first
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Are you saying setup changed your boot blocks, or that you can't eject the CD, or ??? I see you mention later that you used the driver cd, so I'm a bit confused since I can't imagine the install CD doing anything without a kbd and mouse.
Too many twisty paths here. Let us know what you can.