OS: Win XP Pro.
Dell Dimension XPS 1450

I have 2 PS/2 ports and 2 USB ports all 4 of which have worked fine simultaneously. I have plugged in and unplugged a flash (or “jump”) drive into the available USB port dozens of times with no problem.

For some reason yesterday I plugged in the flash drive and everything froze. OK, just unplug it and reboot, right?

I rebooted a dozen times and could not log on because neither the mouse nor the keyboard (connected to the PS/2 ports) were working. Boot-up went normally but I could only get to the logon screen.

After a couple hours of troubleshooting I figured out that when I plugged in the flash drive it somehow disabled both PS/2 ports. My 2 USBs work fine so I swapped mouse and keyboard with USB devices and they work perfectly. I had not previously added any new hardware or software.

Is there any way to display properties of my PS/2 ports from Device Manager? All I know it that they’re both dead and don’t really know where to begin troubleshooting.

It appears that you've already solved the problem.

Yes, my machine is working but my PS/2 ports are still dead and I would like to use one of the USBs for my printer. Is there a setting in the BIOS or somewhere that will display the status of my PS/2 ports?

If the PS/2 mouse and KB work on another system, then your PS/2 ports are probably bad.

You can install a USB PCI controller card for additional USB ports to use for your printer and other USB devices.