Yes I've long since found that KB article and tried the applicapble portions, it didn't change anything.
Remember I can use my keyboard in the VM's BIOS, or to choose a different start up device - it's only when windows loads fully that it stops working.
I thought maybe I can do a repair install, tried one XP SP3 DVD I have and it wouldn't see the hard drive. This despite my first using the included vmscsi.flp then downloading the latest vmscsi-1.2.0.4i.flp image and using that as my floppy and adding as a drive. I press F6, press S, it asks for a floppy, I hit enter and nothing happens.
I got an XP3 SP3 CD from a friend to test, it would only offer to install. No option to repair.
I tried using a bootable CHNTPW cd and to clear my account password so I could at least hit Ok to login then poke around, it said it cleared it but when I try to login it fails.
As far as speed I realized it's because I was still running from the USB 2.0 hard drive I built the image on. Copied it to my SSD and now starts much faster, although seems to linger on the logo window for longer than I would expect before showing me the login screen.
Any other suggestions?
Also wanted to add, I opened the virtual disk file with Winmount, everything looks normal, and c:\windows\system32\drivers has keyboard stuff in it (forget the exact filename). I also plugged a USB keyboard in, verified it work at the BIOS/boot selection screen, and it also didn't work once windows loaded.
There must be SOME obscure entry I can add to the config file for this machine to change how the keyboard works.
Edit2: I just noticed when I boot from the DVD that does see the hard drive, it sees only the partition and how much is in use and free - it doesn't see a windows installation on it. (Despite that I can boot into Windows on it). That's probably why I'm not getting the repair options! Like I said I opened the hard drive file and it looks ok to me - anyone know what the windows XP looks for to determine if Windows is installed?
Edit3: Just booted Hiren's Boot CD and went through and inspected all the standard XP loadup files. They look fine. Also used a builtin registry editor to check my services. Nothing unusual there. However I should note that this VM was built from inside a corporate windows install that has various remote acccess utililties as well as Afaria hardware level encryption, which also has a service that runs which I couldn't find. Since I built the VM from inside Windows however the encryption is irrelevant, just wondering if some service is interfering or perhaps intentionally blocking access since it detects a change...