My M1710 XPS won't go into Safe Mode nor Safe Mode with Networking.

Hi All,

I reinstalled my Genuine copy of Windows XP a couple of days ago after recieving some odd anomolies when doing a defrag in Boot-Up(indicated that it couldn't defrag files 0 and 9 due to not enough memory available). So I ran a scan in Safe mode(using PCTools Spyware Doctor, latest version) only to reveal a couple of Viruses, which I then cleaned. Then started up my machine, and tried to defrag(Raxco Perfect Disk). It all worked perfectly, however after it had all booted up my machine kept indicating that a piece of software I was using was using an inordate amoumt of ram(1.7 GB when I had my XPS on minimal use. So I reinstalled my Windows on the C drive(has 2 partions). Only to find, when I tried to go into Safe Mode of either type my machine goes through the first 'page' of text details then hangs for around ten-fifteen minutes in Safe Mode and with Networking for a more prolonged time then just re-boots! Can you help please?