Sounds like keyboard issue to me, and it maybe the windows key on the keyboard the one with the little windows design on it is either defective or stuck in the down positions. Turn your keyboard up side down and gently tap it see if any thing falls out like dirt etc

Did you run this Dell diagnostic program before wiping the drive?

Did you remove the recovery partition when wiping the drive. If so you can run online diagnostices by Sell from

Curious, why did you upgrade from XP Home to XP?

Wow, screwed up big time there hitting the post button before modifying. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway there is an online Dell diagnostic program here

Yes it sounds like a keyboard shortcut issue, have you by any chance set up any custom keyboard shortcuts? There may be a key sequence to turn off and on some type of pre set shortcuts for that notebook.

Those were my thought, ie: shortcuts programmed into the keyboard. Check your keyboard settings in control panel.

Do keyboard shortcuts go away with new hard drive install? I replaced hard drive. I did not clone new drive. I have no old dell install discs. I have a generic copy of winxp pro that I used. New drive has no user settings or tweaks installed. I only did the minimum required to get notebook running. After 1 day, pop ups returned. I than took out new hard drive and put original hard drive back in.

OK so go to the Dell web site and look for the drivers. Seem to remember that you can punch in the model and serial number found on the back or bottom and it will come up with all the needed drivers.

When you used the XP CD did you use the 25 digit code on the computer case or the sleeve of the CD you used?

i used the cd code.

It makes no difference except you have now used 2 different copies of the operating system. If you ever wipe the drive again use the key on the sticker on the case. Then you can use the CD version on any other computer. This is perfectly legal as the original 25 digit code is registered to that motherboard and that board only, not transferable.

its my only computer at home. so its worth a little effort to fix it.

Did you check in the keyboard settings in control panel as was mentioned earlier? If not that is definitely one place to be looking.
I might look in device manager for any obvious problems and also in even viewer for red alerts.

I still definitely think it is that the keyboard shortcuts are turned on and set up.
Try this hold the NUM LOCK key down for several seconds that should toggle the keys on and off. On a laptop often the numlock pad is the problem so try turning it off and on etc to see if you get any results.

Some laptops have the action and function keys set up with special actions also. You can check your specific model of laptop online or in the user manual to see if that is what is happening.

check these for possible options to try
Disabling the Windows Key on Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Disabling Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

this page has a ton of info for your laptop not sure if it covers this but you may want it as a resource
Dell Inspiron 6000

popup came back after 1 week. tried hitting the microsoft logo key and it seems to have fixed it. i was thinking keyboard hardware issue and the tip on a sticky ms key made me think. perhaps we do get good ideas from the internet.

When an old toshiba keyboard started to have keys go bad.. I found a program to remap the bad keys easily. Think it can disable keys too...

Simple small program.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://keymapper.en.softonic.com/