kbdus.dll error

i have a P-4 1.8 GHZ system with 40 GB HDD and 256 MB DDR RAM.
i have win 98 se on drive c and had win xp pro with SP 2 on drive d.
when xp crashed, i tried to reinstal it from CD and get an error “unable to load keyboard layout kbdus.dll file”.
i am using the same system and keyboard for the past two years without any such problems. win xp has been reinstalled before without any such problems.
ms knowledgebase says that the problem pertains to win 2000 but i am not upgrading from that.
also my cd is not corrputed: it works fine in other computers.
i tried to change keyboard but to no avail.
i have no problems with 98 se installation and it does seem to be giving normal performance. my anti virus package is also uptodate.
please advise how to overcome this problem