wow a 24 huh? Well with a "Bug Check 0x24: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM" You are looking at:

 

A: Corrupt hard drive and may need to be replaced.
B: If it gives you a direct file thats missing you can try replacing it from the cd.

C: Or You can run a chkdsk /r which will repair the hard drive, but might not fix the problem all the time.

 

To run chkdsk /r you need the Windows XP disc, to get that, you should get a disc from dell, you can call and ask them to help you and they should be able to send you the cd to reinstall/try and fix or figure out that your hard drive is bad.

 

If you could give me/us a little more information. Does it say anything about a file like, "ntfs.sys" or "agp440.dll". It wont be those files, but something maybe similar?

Thanks very much for your very welcome advice,

 

The exact message that i have is;

 

a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps;

 

Disable or uninstall any anti - virus , disk defragmentation or backup utilities.  Check your hard drive for any updated drivers.  Run CKHDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then start your computer.

 

Technical Information:

 

 

0x00000024 (0x0019023,0x812CB830,0xC0000102,0x00000000

 

and that is all it says

 

 

Thks for the advice re the xp disk from dell, will ring today. hoping its not the hard drive!

 

i ran the extended test for everything but no problems, dell are sending me some disks so hopefully when i receive the windows disk i can run the CHKDSK on it, thks for the advice

rec'd the disks from dell as promised, ( only rang up on Mon, rec'd today Thurs.)   reinstalled windows xp from the cd and its all working ok now, reformatted the drive as I couln't figure out how to repair windows, when i pressed 'r' it kept asking which drive, and I wasn't sure which partition the windows xp was on!  anyway decided to put it on 'C' ( don't know if this was right!)  Had to reinstall all the software drivers again, but it is a lot quicker now as I only installed what we needed and no trialware.  Not sure if putting windows xp on drive c will cause any probs later though!  Must say I have been very pleased with the service from dell so far.  I don't know much about partitions or reformatting so its a bit trial and error! Thanks for all the advice,