Windows XP on P3 500 MHZ - Keyboard Mouse Disabled

[sukanth]

The PC under reference is HP's BRIO Ba 600 with
Pentium P3 500 MHz Processor and 512 MB SDRAM
with a Seagate 20 GB HDD.
When I used it with Windows 98 Second Edition, I had no problems with using my DOS, Q-BASIC and FoxPro
For DOS Programs from the MS DOS Prompt of Win98.
Recently I installed Windows XP over Windows 98 and
thereafter I could not use my DOS (QBasic and
Foxpro) Programs inside WIN XP in this machine;
Foxpro window would open and do the job but when I
quit Foxpro, Windows XP would crash and I had to
reboot, scan disk etc., etc., Also alternate warm or
cold reboots had the keyboard and Mouse disabled!
(I have noviruses to blame for this, thanks to XP's
firewall, spyware detector and Norton Antivirus
including Autoprotect.).
To get over these two problems, I recently
formatted the HDD, partitioned it into 3 - with the first 2 GB FAT (For my DOS Programs including FOXPRO),
the second 9 GB FAT 32 where I installed Windows 98 and the third 9 GB FAT 32 for Windows XP Professional with SP2. The System boots into Windows XP. Now my DOS programs work in this machine very well without
crashing XP on Exit! But alternate boots continue to
have the  other old problem of keyboard and mouse
being disabled in every second boot, I can't even get
into setup with F2 nor skip scandisc by pressing any
key! Laboriously I have to go through turning off from
the front panel, reboot and wait for XP to settle down with keyboard and mouse enabled in the next boot.
Why does this happen? WHY ME? How do I solve this
problem? Please help!! I am not a computer geek - I am only a careful PC user! Please tailor down your
guidance to my low level of expertise!
Zillion Thanks!
Prof.Dr.K.Loga muthu krishnan,Neurosurgeon,
Chennai  600102. Tamil Nadu. India
E-Mail: <[email protected]>
         <[email protected]>

[Dusty]

Hello Sukanth

First I suggest that you refrain from from giving personal details such as your full name, occupation and address on an open forum.  There are a lot of nasty people out there who thrive on that kind of info.

On bootup do you have the option of which OS to start?

[sukanth]

 
Thank You Dusty!
I take your advice reg security in open fora.
At boot my system does not give me any option but goes into XP straight. But while inside XP I am able to work on DOS/Foxpro etc., since I have a FAT partition also.
Look forward to your reply!

[Dusty]

Hello again...

I have done some searching but regret I have no positive answer(s) for you.   It seems to me that your MBR may not have been correctly setup when you Fdisk'd/formatted but my level of knowledge does not allow me to give a definitive response - sorry.

Perhaps one of two of the more experienced forum members would like to comment.