PC4Dummies

thanks i will try that

no honest cd is first you choose which one you want in the boot device menu F12 and when i choose no 2 ide cd-rom device same thing happens

if i press 3 then it will go to bios press 1 pc trys to start normally etc etc

yes done that by pressing f2 and going into bios f12 brings up this menu

Pressed F12 it shows the boot menu 1. normal 2. ide cd-rom 3. system set up 4. ide drive diagnostics 5. boot to utility partition

does this help ide drive diagnostics primary ide drive o: wdc wd400bb=75fra0

ive even just disabled the diskett drive and the c drive in the set up comes up with strike f1 to try reboot f2 for setup utilitys

followed by this msg windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt <windows root>\system32\hal.dll.

yes now i have noticed that the cd is trying to do something and a msg comes up invalid BOOT.INI file Booting from C:\windows\

pressed f2....i mayed doulbe sure the boot sequence is as follows 1 ide cd-rom 2 diskette drive 3 hard-disk drive c: Saved changes on exit=yes the system then comes up with strike f1 to try reboot, f2 for setup utility

i changed the boot order just as you said i then followed both ways of a clean instal with cd then with disks...still nothing on cd load it comes up with press f1 to retry reboot, f2 for setup utility

it wont load

get as far as disk no4 then following msg the file lbrtfdc.sys is corrupted press any key to continue

windows xp home edition includes service pack 2 version 2002 its brand new ive never installed it b4

yes to the letter...sorry for being a pain