Mouse/Keyboard Freeze During XP Install

I'm working on a friend's home built PC:
900mhz AMD processor
20GB Western Digital EIDE Harddrive
256mb RAM
ACER CD-R/W drive
3dfx Graphics Card?
standard mouse and keyboard

History:
Boot after Hurricane Frances caused PC to go into CHKDSK. Hung on Phase 2
never going beyond 8% complete. If CHKDSK was skipped, once Windows XP loaded, PC would restart.

Currently attempting clean install of Windows XP (had been running successfully on Windows XP prior to this mess -- no new hardware, software or drivers installed in past several months). Initally got blue screen of death with a stop error during "Installing Windows" phase. Removed all peripheral hardware that wasn't needed and swapped out RAM. I am now able to get to the point where I'm prompted for Reginal settings and user name; however, when I get to the screen to enter a computer name and administrator password, the mouse and keyboard freeze. The mouse does appear to be fuctional prior to this point.

I'm at a loss as to where to go from here. Any suggestions?

 

hi
could you tell me even if the lights on your keyboard are working eg. num lock, caps lock, scroll lock

you see this should tell us if its windows xp not installing required drivers for them to work or if its not picking them up or if its hardware related

and have you tried unpluging them before then repluging them in???????????????

 

The Num Lock light remains lit throughout. Once the mouse/keybroard freezes, the lights don't change (i.e. if I hit the caps lock key or try to disable the num lock). And I have replugging the mouse/keyboard.

 

question thought the set up do you have control over the keyboard/ mouse (both)
or not at all
if you have try unpluging them both before windows xp trys to copying all files and folders to your computer to see if it install all the software needed