After Xp Starts, Keyboard N Mouse Stop Working?

[Mr. Boo Bear]

Hi,
I edited the XP Home Edition SP2, registry in two places. Immediately afterwards, my pc seemed to boot normally, but the mouse and keyboard became non-responsive, as if they weren't present. Hard to compute without input devices, LOL l I can make changes in the BIOS setup area and then once Windows starts, I can look at the desktop.

To complicate the issue, Windows stopped recognizing the CD-RW and DVD drives the day before (unrelated to the KB/mouse prob), so those are unusable. The floppy works, and I have an additional non-working PC (both Dells with XP Home, WDC HDDs).

Is it possible to open regedit from a command prompt before XP starts so I can unedit what I shouldn't have edited. If so, how? Or, can I install HDD #2 as the master, make HDD#1 the slave, boot from HDD#2 and then somehow access HDD#1 to get to regedit in #1?

I've tried booting in safe mode, and safe mode with logging(?) I read the system messages in the BIOS setup, and it reported a keyboard failure. Is that significant? (It's a working keyboard). I changed the mouse from a PS2 to a USB connection. No difference. Windows even recognzed the new mouse and installed the drivers automatically after one of the useless boots. The mouse still didn't work, though. Can I make a start-up floppy that would take me to a command prompt? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. At this point, I'm willing to try almost anythng reasonable. Thanks

[FReakMaster]

You didn't make a bakup copy of the registry before you edited? There may be changes there you are not even aware of needing fixing.

[Mr. Boo Bear]

To answer the question, no, I didn't. But even if I had, it wouldn't be accessible. Unless I'd backed up to a floppy. Good point though about other changes. Yikes.

[FReakMaster]

The answer to your question is yes:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

Have fun at the Recovery Console.

[Cerebral Assasin]

hmmmm recovery console.... if u have the bootable winxp cd.. run a repair....

dont get to the recovery console just yet it can be a lil confusng,,, go to the fresh install screen and there when it recognizes an existing winxp os it will as you whether u want to repair/upgrade or do a fresh install.. then choose repar.. all ur installed files will remain the same but the sytem files etc wll be refreshed.... so taht shld solve ur problem....