I suspect the file that actually compares the key is honked up. My FIL had that happen to him and a reload fixed it. Same deal Dell was no help and Microsoft said it was Dell machine and they wanted $80 an hour to talk to us.
I do have some Dell OS XP pro disks I can send you a copy of. I may have SP2 and 3. I sort of collect them ;-)
They do seem to work across other manufacturer's platforms but the drivers may not be there.
