taraandmark,

* Power the system off
* Power the system on
* At the blue Dell, tap F8 to bring up the Windows boot menu
* Scroll to and select Safe Mode [Press the Enter Key]
* Select the first or only operating system [Press the Enter Key]

* Click Start- Run
* Type msconfig [press the ENTER key]
* Click the Startup tab. Do you see DOCEOC16B1?

Ok. I tried to boot in safe mode and it gets me to the screen that says

"To begin click your user name"

BOOT TO THE WINDOWS XP CD
* Remove any/all external devices (printer, scanner, camera, joystick) from the computer except the mouse & keyboard
* Insert the operating system CD into the top CD drive
* Restart the system
* Press CTRL+ALT+F8 or F12 to enter the Boot Device Menu
* Press the number for CD-ROM [press Enter]
* Your system will now boot to the operating system CD that you had inserted into the top CD drive
* The following message appears: Press any key to boot from the CD
* Press the [Spacebar] to boot to the CD

RUN THE WINDOWS REPAIR
* The system will scan to see which hard drives are available
* When the license agreement screen appears, press the F8 key to accept the license agreement
* Press the Down Arrow key to highlight the copy of Windows XP that you want to repair
* Then, press the R key. Setup will proceed with the installation sequence appropriate to the version of Windows XP being repaired

I'm having this same problem....

Unfortunately, in trying to follow directions, I do not get the blue DELL Screen on startup, , it goes straight to the Windows XP screen (I have SP2)...

Please help......

 

THanks.....

 

I have proceeded with the boot from the CD...... got stuck when I needed the Administrator password.......  how do I remember what that is?? can I get that re-set??

 

Many thanks....