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1) Use a USB keyboard, with WinXP, any USB keyboard should just work.

2) Make sure your network settings are all proper.

3) Then set up an externally available 'share'.

Done.

Please look on the internet for a tutorial on setting up a 'share' for your specific flavor of Windows. It is different for every one.

Used USB keyboards cost about $1 here.

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Additional info...

The processor upgrade you desire for your i8200 is extremely unlikely to work. And it would not make data transfers from your 'new' network drive any faster.

The i8200 has 2 USB1 ports, so you can use any USB keyboard - as long as the OS you are using supports USB. WinXP does support USB.

The vertical bars went away in safe mode because the machine outputs lower resolution video in safe mode -- Experiment to find out the highest resolution that works for both card and monitor.

You can use the Windows i8200 as a 'share' volume on your network, via Windows file sharing - See the internet for a 'how to' guide for that.

There is no other way to use a Windows i8200 as an external drive that I know of, other than removing the HD and placing it in an external case - It is not a Macintosh.

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It looks like your first/main question is essentially "How do I use my Inspirion 8200 once the LCD display is broken". I will try to answer that question below. The rest, "is it possible to use as an extra xp os for old software w/ what kind of adapter and what is best available access port, what cable/devise can I use to do it, does it use firewire, can I use the usb ports for this job?" I do not understand.

The 8200 was a top-of-the-line model, and as such it has a video output (monitor) port. You only need the right cable/adapter to use that port for video, and that should have come with the laptop.

Video cards with this setup usually respond to you hooking up an external monitor by default with Video Mirroring - that means they put the same image on both the LCD screen and the monitor port. Try that by hooking up a good analog computer monitor (or LCD). The analog video is more likely to be a good match for the semi-random setting of the video in the laptop.

If that works, you are set. Go set the video card settings to what looks best on your external monitor, and you have a working machine. If you want to use it as a server/share because you do not have a spare monitor, that will work also. I have an analog monitor or two here you can have if you live near me. Neither is very large, maybe 860x???.

If you get video, and it looks like the background should look, then the settings for the monitor may be extending the desktop for the second monitor. If this happens, try starting in safe mode (I am assuming you are running Windows), which may give you mirroring. Once you have control of the desktop, change the settings for the video card to give you mirroring, and restart normally.

You may have to work at finding the right cable. It probably came with one, but who knows where it is now. Look online for the video cable/adapter if it is non-standard.

I found three Video/Multi-Media cables listed as parts for the 8200.

0P030 Multi-Media cable kit, (includes RCA Y-Harness, Audio/Vidio RCA cable & S-Video cable)

7309P S-Video to RCA(Yellow) TV Output Cable Kit (Includes Cable and Techsheet)

70TVD S-Video Port Splitter Cable Kit, Cable provides S-Video, RCA(Yellow)

http://www.bay-wolf.com/parts_insp8200.h...

These cables make it sound like the output from your monitor port will be a TV signal! Try hooking it up to your TV, and see if it is the desktop.

Then decide if you can work with a low-resolution image on a TV or not. You may want to use it as a server, but the TV should work to set up the server!

There are several companies making USB to DVI/VGA video, but the 8200 had only the slow USB-1, not USB-2, so USB video is not likely to work well, may not work at all.