Hi Ken,
thanks for the reply, it wont start in safe mode anymore, my dad somehow got it to load up in safe mode about a week ago once by tapping f8 i think he had the battery out then aswel, we ran an anti virus scan and then tried to restart but since then nothing but the loop on-off thing. Its almost like the thing is shorting out each time. it starts up for about 20-30 seconds then just cuts out and starts up again but each time nothing on the screen. we have had it apart twice now in bits, i took off a faulty usb port as sometimes that caused the laptop to short out, does the processor chip or board have a sensor on it that might think- this is overheating and cut out then try again? totally baffled and reluctant to start buying a new battery/charger etc if its the chip/board or even mains socket. 1 thing i did start using prior to all this was a wireless remote with a little usb dongle- could it be a virus from that new hardware/software?
thanks for helping!