Dell Dimension E521 - No PS/2 Port - Trouble with XP setup

Hello to everyone at Ozzu.

I agreed to help a friend out by reinstalling windows XP onto his Dell Dimension E521. What I had not realized is that some idiot at Dell decided to channel their Dell stupidity into this PC's design, therefore striking it of a PS/2 port. Forced to use a USB keyboard, textmode XP setup cannot be completed due to the fact that it can't take input.

My final resort will be to pull the hard drive, put it in another computer and reformat/reinstall there, however I would of course much rather find a way to load USB keyboard drivers into textmode setup. I thought maybe nLite could do it but I wasn't sure if it could load USB drivers too considering they are probably quite a bit larger than, say, sata hard drive drivers.

Any help would be appreciated.

Were you using the Dell installation or repair CD that came with the PC?

Can't you just find the motherboard/chipset drivers and re-install them?

Go into the BIOS and enable USB support for keyboards

No, I was using my own XP install disc.

You can't install motherboard/chipset drivers into XP textmode install.

I looked in the bios and didn't see it, I guess I'll check again before last resort-ing.

Nope.. usb keyboards for dos just isn't in there. I know the bios level driver works because I can obviously navigate through the bios but as soon as it gets into XP setup the USB keyboard is no longer operational.

I think I'm just gonna have to install it in another comp, because I really need to get this out of the way.

In the BIOS check under Advanced>Peripheral Configuration or under Integrated Devices (Legacy Select Options), it should be there. Most Dell desktops I have ever used has an option to enable USB support.

Install new drivers

You can't install new drivers while you are reinstalling Windows.

you know, i had that problem once. However, i just got once of those old usb keyboards and it worked

I only have one USB keyboard and its an apple one. This could quite possibly be the problem, however I have no other keyboards to test it with.

Grinch: that menu doesn't exist in this bios. don't know why.

no offense man, but it doesn't make any sense not to be able to use your keyboard without a driver. i know you need a driver for your keyboard when you wanna use all the features it has such as media player and all those extra bottoms sometimes they include. i think you might wanna keep looking in your bios for anything related to usb support. likewise, use the main usb ports not thr extra ones, for sometimes the bios has only 1/4 of the ports in your computer enable. mine has 2 usb ports enable by default, when actually my computer has 8, so i have to tell it to include the other 6 and then they work

I tried this n it worked.

Start the PC with the keyboard n mouse connected. when the install wizard pop up insert the xp setup cd. It should automatically install the drivers. if the first setup does not cause the mouse or keyboard to function, remove the CD and push the power button on the PC to shut it down. Turn the PC back on. Another installation should popup. Insert the XP setup cd again. It should do another auto installation. Continue this method until all the drivers are installed.