Following the problems I have been having with my Dimension 8300 freezing up when using Windows Explorer and the file search I followed advice on the XP Magazine forum and ran a repair of windows using the instructions I found on this site using the Dell Reinstallation CD, The one that came with my machine.

 

Everything went fine and I clicked next at the “Regional Settings” page and it went on to a screen saying it was installing windows and it would take 69minutes. During this operation I kept getting messages that it could not find a file such as “esscli.dl_. and mofcomp.dl_. and asked me to ensure that the “Windows XP Home Edition - Service pack 1” was in the drive. It was. There must have been 20 or more files, it  even said that it could not find Internet Explorer! I tried browsing for them on the CD but it rejected any I highlighted. After I kept clicking on cancel it carried on and eventually rebooted and hung on a black screen with the Microsoft logo and “please wait” I waited and waited and eventually rebooted the machine myself. It booted up but threw up a lot of messages about not being able to start/initialise various processes. I notice in Add/Remove Programs that all my updates have gone, I had installed service pack 2.