Problem solved.

It was my A4tech wireless optical mouse.

It would seem that it is incompatible with XP Pro SP2. If it is plugged in then Win XP crashes and locks the PC.

Even if Win XP is loaded and running; plugging in the USB transponder completely and instantly crashes the system.

If the transponder is already plugged in and the laptop then turned on; Windows will crash on loading and lockup completely.

I'm not sure if loading a newer driver will help - there doesn't seem ot be any warnings about this on the A4Tech site.

A4tech released a new driver (iofficeworks 7.64)for the Wireless USB Optical mouse that solves the compatibilty problem with SP2. Download the latest driver but make sure that the old file "amusbprt.sys" is removed from c:\windows\system32\drivers before installing the new driver. Simply uninstalling the iOfficeworks 7.60 does not remove the driver.

It sure is good to have the A4tech mouse working again! 

i have a similar problem ..  message comes up that system 32 config .. is corrupted .. i think it had to do with installing a portable router .. or the new software from my samsung camera ..  i  bought a repair disk for windows xp .. but it keeps telling me about image restoring .. i had to get a DVD drive to read the disk ..

i'm stuck .. it's windows xp pro .. i have no dell software for it .. bought it on ebay .. i'm a working non-profit .. the computer worked very well at first .. i could use some advise ..

thank you in advance .. :)

This thread is 9 years old.

XP service pack 3 was released in 2009 and XP reaches End of life in 6 months.

Follow Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean Install of Windows XP:

http://philipyip.wordpress.com/dell-community-forums/ 

If your model is a Dell Latitude D505 its pretty old and you should run the hardware diagnostics on it (see page 374).

If they pass then try making the XP CD into a bootable USB (with Service Pack 3) see page 302 and use this to install Windows XP.

thank you for taking the time to get back to me on this .. there's a lot to read .. but i will try this .. wish me luck .. ;)

Good luck let me know how the install goes.