I can't get my Computer to start at all. When I switch it on it goes straight to the Safe Mode screen that has all the options and tells me my computer wasn't shut down properly. Last known good configuration, Safe Mode and all the others don't work. When I used Last known good configuration the XP Home logo screen appears then it just goes blank after this. I even tried booting form the recovery CD and even from there it won't let me run the Recovery Console, nor can I run from a floppy disk. I decided to check inside the PC and detatched the Heat Sink from the CPU. When I pulled off the heatsink the CPU came straight out with it. It's completely stuck to the CPU and there's like, all black tar stuff around it. Would you say the CPU is completely melted to the Heatsink or is it supposed to be like this? I have virtually no experience with P4 CPUs', just AMD ones! I took the Hard Drive and set it as a slave in my working PC. I have run Virus checks on it and it seems fine. Please Please Please help me. It's driving me mad!

You say you've tried to enter the recovery console, but have you tried this........... Run a repair of Xp. Make CDROM first Boot Device in your BIOS, save and exit. Place your Xp CD in the drive and reboot (you may need to press F8 or other key during boot), once at the setup screen make like you were doing a fresh install. When you have to select a partition/drive to install to, select the one Xp is ALREADY on, and you should see an option to repair.

I believe the "black tar" stuff is supposed to be there (sounds like thermal gel stuff) but I've never used that stuff before so I can't tell you if it's supposed to be sticky. Anyone got any comments on that? I'd replace the CPU as it was (don't remove it from the heatsink - if you have already I'd seek help re: thermal gel and reseating CPU) and follow Hooner's advice above. Hope that helps, and if I'm wrong somebody please correct me!!! BL

Wow man never ever take the heatsink off the cpu. If you remove the heatsink from the chip you're gonna need to get some one to clean both surfaces and put fresh thermal grease on both and hook them back together. (raps knuckles with ruler) Getting the heatsink off usally requires considerable force and I'm surprised you didn't crack the chip or bend some pins. Ok Hooner is looking at a software problem and I'm looking at it from a hardware perspective. If after what he tells you still doesn't work then try this. 1> Reinstall the mobo chipset drivers. 2> (Here's the fun part) Remove all the ram cards. One at a time put just one card in and try to reboot. My reasoning concerning the ram cards is this: If there is a bad memory location on one of the cards, there's not enough room to load xp true. Considering safe mode shuts off everything but basicly what it needs to start up, it requires very little ram space. 3> Check to see if all agp and pci cards are seated across the entire card slot. Sometimes just tightening the set screw is enough to pull the card out of the slot. You may have to make some "adjustments" to the mounting brackets or the case. Be carefull... 4> Unplug and then plug back in the IDE and floppy ribbon cables. The simple metal to metal contact is enough to clean them. Bottom line is trouble shooting is a pain. It's time consuming. But you learn about your system and what works and what don't. Oh, don't clean the card edges with a pencil erasre. Just rub a soft terry cloth wash cloth across the contacts. Dry of course. Hope this helps you.

Guys, thanks for the help here. I plan to do this tonight at some stage. Don't worry. I haven't applied any force at all on the CPU. I suspected that it may have came like that. I just hadn't seen one before because as I say, I've never had to dismantle a P4 before. I'll try exactly what you've said. Also, I'll try disabling the cache. I know the system will run very slow but if nothing else works what choice do I have? I'll let you know how I get on folks. Thanks so much!